http://video1.washingtontimes.com/fishwrap/2007/10/white_house_dismisses_talks_of.htmlWhite House dismisses talks of common currencyThe White House this morning categorically denied that President Bush is considering or has ever considered agreeing to a common currency for the U.S., Mexico and Canada to rival the Euro.
"I can assure you that President Bush is not, and has not, given consideration to any other currency for the United States. Period," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto in an e-mail.
The Washington Times first questioned White House press secretary Dana Perino about this yesterday, after watching a YouTube clip of former Mexico President Vicente Fox's comments on the Larry King Show Monday night.
Mrs. Perino said she had not heard anything about a common currency, but did not eliminate the possibility that Mr. Bush and Mr. Fox might have discussed such an idea in the past.
"I don’t think that that’s something we're actively considering," she said.
Mr. Fox's comments came at the end of his interview with Mr. King, in response to an e-mailed question from a viewer about whether Mr. Fox supports a common currency for Latin America. The question was not about a currency for North America.
Mr. Fox said a common currency for Latin America would be "very long term." He instead focused on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, which in Spanish is called Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas, or ALCA.
"What we propose together, President Bush and myself, it's ALCA, which is a trade union for all of the Americas," Mr. Fox said. "And everything was running fluently until
Hugo Chavez came. He decided to isolate himself. He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea."
Mr. King then interrupted, interjecting a question about a common currency.
"It's going to be like the Euro dollar, you mean?" Mr. King said.
"Well that would be long, long term," Mr. Fox said. "I think the processes to go, first step into is trading agreement. And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA."
Here is the interview's full transcript and video.