With virtually no mention in the mainstream media, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez convened on June 15, the first meeting of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an apparently extra-constitutional advisory group organized by the Department of Commerce (DOC) under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

A March 31 press release on the White House website, under the title “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America: Progress,�?announced the formation of the NACC. The press release noted that the NACC would meet annually �?FONT color=#ff0066>with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis.�?The “SPP Ministers�?were not identified. Moreover, the term “Ministers�?was an unusual reference to the U.S. government, especially when the founding fathers had taken such pains to rid the U.S. of all terminology that could be reminiscent of monarchical systems such as the British royalty against whom the Revolutionary War was aimed. Evidently, the reference was to Gutierrez, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the three cabinet officers to whom the extensive SPP working groups organized in DOC are now reporting, as well as their cabinet level counterparts in Mexico and Canada.