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When President Bush met with Mexico President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper in New Orleans this week, the agenda focused largely on free trade issues and border security. "As continental neighbors and partners committed to democratic government, the rule of law and respect for individual rights and freedoms, Canada, Mexico and the United States have shared interests in keeping North America secure, prosperous, and competitive in today's global environment. We met in New Orleans to discuss how we might collaborate further to achieve these goals, as well as to discuss our hemispheric and global interests and concerns," the three leaders said in a joint statement released April 22.

But, according to anti-free trade activists, pro-border fence conservatives and populist commentators such as Lou Dobbs, behind that innocuous statement germinates a secret and sinister intent.

Some Americans believe leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico are working on a secret plan to create a single North American government with a single currency (the "Amero") and a superhighway linking the three countries without borders and without the U.S. Constitution. 

As the Houston Chronicle reported:

The "Security and Prosperity Partnership," as the three call their shared agenda, has been met with alarm and anger by some, most prominently by CNN commentator Lou Dobbs, who argues that it's a first step toward a blended North American Union modeled on the European Union that will result in a loss of American sovereignty.

Bush, who has vigorously promoted trade and economic cooperation with his neighbors, last year dismissed such claims as "political scare tactics."Voices on the left also oppose the alliance, claiming the leaders put the interests of business and trade before workers and the environment. A spate of protests are planned for New Orleans, including a shadow "people's summit."

American officials categorically deny any plan to establish a North American Union. "There is no secret plan to create a North American union, or a common currency, or to intrude on the sovereignty of any of the partner nations," said U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez at a U.S.-Canadian business summit in 2007.

But it is true that some prominent academics and public policy think tanks have advocated the formation of a North American Union for years. The Independent Task Force on North America, a project organized by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, openly advocates a greater economic and social integration among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Following the March 2005 meeting in Waco, Texas, that established the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the CFR published a task force report, "Building a North American Community." The report's authors explained the project this way:

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the futures of Canada, Mexico, and the United States are shared as never before. As a result, all three countries face a historic challenge: Do they continue on the path of cooperation in promoting more secure and more prosperous North American societies, or do they pursue divergent and ultimately less secure and less prosperous courses? To ask the question is to answer it; and yet, if important decisions are not pursued and implemented, the three countries may well find themselves on divergent paths. Such a development would be a tragic mistake, one that can be readily avoided if they stay the course and pursue a series of deliberate and cooperative steps that will enhance both the security and prosperity of their citizens.

CNN's Dobbs and Jerome Corsi, a writer for World Net Daily and author of The Late, Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada, frequently refer to the CFR document as evidence of a plot. But contrary to Dobbs and Corsi, the paper in fact discusses strengthening each nation's sovereignty through closer cooperation on trade, counterterrorism, and drug interdiction.

What about the idea of a North American currency? Is there such thing as the Amero? Yes, but not in the form of minted coins or bills ... and not in the United States. 

The Amero is the brainchild of Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel, a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute and author of The Case for the Amero (1999).  Robert Pastor, vice-chairman of the Independent Task Force on North America, echoed Grubel's conclusions in his 2001 book Toward a North American Community, writing: "In the long term, the amero is in the best interests of all three countries." Another Canadian think-tank, the C.D. Howe Institute, also advocates the a shared currency between Canada and the United States. Yet U.S. officials have shown practically no interest in the idea.

Meantime, Snopes.com, the great Internet urban-legends site, has done a fine job of dismantling rumors about the existence of the Amero as anything more than an academic abstraction.

What about the NAFTA superhighway? Canadian transportation officials refer to I-35 as the NAFTA highway. Otherwise, the rumored transnational highway is a myth. Federal Highway Administration officials have repeatedly denied there are any plans to construct a NAFTA superhighway. The Trans-Texas Corridor, however, is a private-public project linking Texas and Mexico distribution centers. The highway was first proposed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2002 and remains mired in controversy.

Just because a NAFTA superhighway doesn't exist doesn't mean political leaders can't do something about it. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., in July 2007 offered an amendment to HR 3074, the 2008 Transportation Appropriations Act, barring the use of federal funds for Department of Transportation participation in the activities of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

"Unfortunately, very little is known about the NAFTA Super Highway," Hunter said. "This amendment will provide Congress the opportunity to exercise oversight of the highway, which remains a subject of question and uncertainty, and ensure that our safety and security will not be compromised in order to promote the business interests of our neighbors."

Is the Security and Prosperity Partnership a threat? Only if closer cooperation between three nations is a threat, which is another way of saying "it depends." Free trade, by design, draws nations closer together. But free trade does not necessarily erase national borders or diminish a nation's sovereignty. And it's worth remembering that the North American Free Trade Agreement is a treaty that required a decade of negotiation, the signature of the president and the approval of the U.S. Senate in open debate. A North American Union would be impossible to form in secret, outside the light of day.

So, there is a plan to create a North American Union. It exists on the Internet and its a favorite topic of discussion among thinktank economists. But it is not a sinister government plan. The conspiracy is phony.