Glossary of Terms:

The NAFTA corridor and national high priority corridors utilize a verity of terminology that is possibly unfamiliar to many. Here we supply key definitions to many of the terms that you will find throughout various documents, both on this site, and other websites.
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Amero: A common currency between two or more nations of North America, governed by a North American Central Bank, with no ties to any single nation, but with a council from different member nations. See Euro and North American Currency Union.

CAFTA: The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, more commonly known as DR-CAFTA, is a free trade agreement being negotiated as of May 2005. As CAFTA, the treaty originally encompassed the United States and the Central American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In 2005, the Dominican Republic joined the negotations, and treaty became known as DR-CAFTA.

Corporate Governance: "Corporate Governance is concerned with holding the balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals. The corporate governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society"

Dollarization: Dollarization occurs when a country or countries adopt the U.S. dollar as their official currency.

Euro: The currency of 12 member nations of the European Union. The Euro was introduced in 1999, when the first 11 countries to adopt it joined together in an Economic and Monetary Union and fixed their currencies' exchange rate to the Euro. Notes and coins were brought into general circulation in January 2002, although banks and other financial institutions had before that time carried out transactions in Euros.

Free Trade Agreement: An agreement between two or more nations that eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs and trade barriers.

Foreign Trade Zone: Also known as Free Trade Zones, or FTZs, they are ports designated by the government of a country for the duty-free entry of non-prohibited goods. Merchandise may be stored, displayed, assembled, packaged, or used for manufacture within the zone and re-exported without duties being levied.

Inland Ports: Inland ports are shipping, receiving and distribution centers designed to relieve the congestion in increasingly busy seaports.

Inter-modal transportation: Including, but not necessarily limited to, air passenger/air cargo systems, the river port system, major interstate and state highway corridors, the freight rail system, both urban and rural public transit systems, intercity rail and bus systems, and selected bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

High Priority Corridors: Congress has specified some 45 routes on the National Highway System (NHS) as A High Priority Corridors. These designations were made on the importance of the route in serving regional, national, and international freight and vehicle movements. Designation of these routes began with the ISTEA transportation bill from 1992 to 1997 and continued with the TEA-21 transportation bill.
In 2004, Norman Y Mineta, US Secretary of Transportation said "There is an example right here in Texas that I use to illustrate the principles of intermodalism and innovative financing – the Trans-Texas Corridor."

Human Capital: Human capital is the stock of expertise accumulated by a worker. It is valued for its income-earning potential in the future. As with physical capital such as plant and machinery, human capital is the result of past investment and its purpose is to generate future incomes.

Monetary Union: Monetary unions differs significantly from Dollarization because all national monetary policies are abandoned in favor of a shared policy among participating countries. Fiscal policy coordination is also necessary. The European Monetary Union is an example of this type of arrangement.

NASCO Corridor/NASCO SuperCorridor: "existing Interstate Highways 35/29/94,” according to the NASCO website. Or the “International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor”(from a NASCO Presentation in 2007)

NAFTA Corridor: A part of the National High Priority Corridor program passed in 1998 in the TEA-21 legislation. Funding was also appropriated in the 2005 SAFETEA-LU Transportation Improvement Legislation for all National High Priority corridors. A NAFTA Corridor runs approximately along the I-35 Interstate route, from the Mexico border up to Canada. Current projects in Texas, under the name of Trans-Texas Corridor, seek to expand the current I-35 highway, into the proposed superhighway/corridor.

NAFTA Superhighway: A designation created in the 1991 ISTEA Transportation Act, primarily applicable to I-69. Also identified by the Oklahoma Legislature as Interstate 35 in Oklahoma. NASCO is one of many organizations working to have existing highways redesignated as "NAFTA Superhighways."

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO): Non-governmental Organization, a non-for-profit agency not affiliated with any government or private sector entity, devoted to managing resources and implementing projects with the goal of addressing social problems. They may receive some public funding.

North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): NAFTA is a free trade agreement, implemented January 1, 1994, that comprises Canada, the US and Mexico, exceeding 360 million consumers and with a combined output of $6 trillion.

North American International Trade Corridor Partnership: A non-profit corporation whose mission is to bring together municipalities and chambers of commerce from Mexico, the United States and Canada” who also worked to “generate influence and synergies by bringing together and organizing high level decision makers concerned with economic development and transportation issues along the NAFTA super-highway.” It was merged with the North America's Superhighway Coalition (NASCO) in 2005.

North America’s Super-Corridor Coalition, Inc. (NASCO): Is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America. It wasfounded in 1994 as the I-35 Corridor Coalition and in 1996 incorporated into a non-profit organization and became the North America's Superhighway Coalition. In 2005 they merged with the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership (NAITCP), and changed their name to the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition.

North America's Superhighway Coalition (NASCO): The I-35 Trade Corridor Coalition changed it's name in 1996 to this, and later to the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition. See Above.

North American Monetary Union: An idea based on the common European Union currency, the Euro.

North American Union: The fusion of the sovereign states of Canada, Mexico and the United States into one supranational governmental organization, very much like the European Union.

Public-Private Partnership: Is a system in which a government service or private business venture is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies. These schemes are sometimes referred to as PPP or P3. Historically, such endeavors were known as fascism or corporatism.

Regionalization/Regionalism: Is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system. The first coherent regional initiatives began in the 1950s and 1960, but they accomplish little, except in Western Europe with the establishment of the European Communities. Some analysts call these initiatives "old regionalism." In the late 1980s, a new bout of regional integration (also called "new regionalism") began and still continues.

Security and Property Partnership (SPP): The first step in regionalization (See ‘Regionalization’) of North America. The SPP was founded March 23, 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico and the United States, with the stated purpose of, but not limited to, developing a common security strategy to further secure North America, preventing and responding to threats within North America. The SPP provides the framework to ensure that North America is the safest and best place to live and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade. [3]

Smart Port: Kansas City Smart Port. Today, international trade is emerging as an important inter-jurisdictional issue in the Midwest region. The 1998 Mid-Continent TradeWay Study reinforced this reality. This study found that a significant amount of international cargo is already processed in or passes through the Kansas City region. In addition, NAFTA trade in Kansas and Missouri is growing, and opportunities exist to provide value-added services for NAFTA goods process more freight in the Greater Kansas City Area. The study also showed that the area needed a single organization with a sole focus of growing the transportation industry.

Sustainable Development: Sustainable Development has three components: global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction.
The international focus for Sustainable Development is the United States. This is because America is the only country in the world based on the ideals of private property. Private property is incompatible with the collectivist premise of Sustainable Development. [1]

Stakeholder: The role of stakeholder is a very old concept in law. A stakeholder was originally a person who temporarily holds money or other property while its owner is being determined. This is, for example, the situation when two persons bet on the outcome of a future event and ask a third, disinterested, neutral person to hold the money (or "stake[s]") that they have wagered (or "staked"). After the event occurs, the stakeholder distributes the stakes to one or both of the original (or other) parties according to the outcome of the event and according to the previously decided conditions.

Toll Roads: Traditional toll roads have been welcomed by the public because they are designed and built as whole new highways that compliment existing freeways, therefore, the public can choose to use a toll road or a freeway. Those traditional toll roads are funded primarily with investor dollars. In contrast, "Double Tax Tolls" are public freeways funded with our tax dollars to create a revenue-generating machine that will shift ALL our freeways to tollways. [4]

Trans-Texas Corridor: The Trans Texas Corridor is not one but several all-Texas superhighway that are planned to include toll ways for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger bullet trains, commuters trains, high-speed freight trains, pipelines of all types, and electrical transmission towers. Plans also include gas stations, garages, restaurants, hotels, stores, billboards, warehouses, freight interchange, inter-modal transfer areas, passenger train stations, bus stations, parking facilities, dispatch control centers, maintenance facilities, pipeline pumping stations, and of course, toll booths. [2]