Archive for the ‘Canada-US Border’ Category

The following is a 4 February 2011 news release by the Prime Minister of Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama today issued a Declaration on a Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness. The Declaration establishes a new long-term partnership that will accelerate the legitimate flows of people and goods between both countries, while strengthening security and economic competitiveness. The two leaders also announced the creation of a U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) and received the Second Report to Leaders on the U.S.-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue (CED).

“This Declaration demonstrates the continued commitment of Canada and the United States to ensuring our common security, while supporting economic competitiveness, job creation and prosperity within a secure environment,” said the Prime Minister. “It builds on the remarkable security partnership between Canada and the United States that has helped keep our borders open to legitimate trade and travellers, and closed to criminal and terrorist elements.”

The Declaration will focus on four areas of co-operation: addressing threats early; trade facilitation, economic growth and jobs; integrated cross-border law enforcement; and critical infrastructure and cyber-security.

Canada and the U.S. will develop a joint action plan on perimeter security and economic competitiveness that will set out a range of initiatives in the four key areas to improve both countries’ ability to manage security risks, while facilitating the flow of people, goods and services.

A “Beyond the Border Working Group” composed of representatives from both governments will be established to implement and oversee work on the action plan.

“The Canada-U.S. partnership on security and economic competitiveness must evolve continually if we are to stay strong and address future security and commercial concerns,” added the Prime Minister. “This declaration sets the stage for more effective, long-term collaboration in these areas. It also respects the sovereignty of both countries and the privacy of our citizens.”

In addition to the Declaration, the two leaders also announced the creation of a United States-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) that will reduce red tape by making regulations in a range of sectors more compatible and less burdensome in both countries – which is especially important for small businesses.

“The review of these rules is an exceptional opportunity to break down regulatory barriers and prevent new ones from being introduced,” added the Prime Minister. “The main goal is to make it easier for Canadian and American firms to do business on both sides of our shared border, leading to more jobs and growth in both Canada and the U.S.“

Increased regulatory co-operation between Canada and the U.S. is expected to generate economic opportunities on both sides of the border, while improving the ability of regulatory agencies in both countries to achieve their objectives.

Prime Minister Harper and President Obama also received the Second Report to Leaders on the Clean Energy Dialogue (CED) which lays out progress achieved in 20 joint projects in such areas as solar energy, advanced biofuels, and carbon capture and storage. The purpose of the CED, which was announced in February 2009 by the two leaders, is to enhance collaboration between Canada and the U.S. on the development of clean energy technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and combating climate change.

Links to Related Items are available here:
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?category=1&featureId=6&pageId=26&id=3931

The following is excerpted from the 4 February 2011 edition of “The Canadian Business Journal”.

As the country awaits an announcement from the Harper/Obama governments on sweeping changes to border regulations, designed to improve trade and the movement of people between Canada and its southern neighbours, CBJ looks at the vital trading relationship between the two countries. Read on for a spotlight on the Canadian American Business Council, an exclusive with an expert on North American trade, and Canada’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Spotlight: Canadian American Business Council

The United States and Canada are inherently linked as trading partners. The mutual dependency on each other is increasingly becoming a focus beyond the boardroom doors. The Canadian American Business Council (CABC) is the representative voice of the Canadian-American business community in Washington, focused on the private sector issues that affect the business communities of both nations.

As an established voice of the business community, the CABC has successfully garnered a place with policy makers on both sides of the border, frequently acting as a liaison between critical people and parties.

This month, The Canadian Business Journal delves further into the CABC in the special section Canada on the World Stage. CBJ speaks with Executive Director Jane Moffat and hears her engaging insights into the crucial relationship of private sector business in the U.S. and Canada. CBJ is convinced of the CABC’s critical role—and delighted that the Canadian business community has such a great forum for discourse in Washington…

This article is available in its entirety on the Canadian Business Journal website at:
http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/features/febraury_11_features/canada_on_the_world_stage.html

The following is from the 3 February 2011 edition of “globeandmail.com”.

Why it’s happening

Barack Obama and Stephen Harper will sign an action plan Friday ordering bureaucrats to draft agreements that would tighten continental security and the flow of trade.

Borders aren’t flowing as easily as they did in the years before Sept. 11, or in trade parlance, they are thickening. Friday’s declaration aims to break the logjams while also deterring possible terrorist attacks.

If the agreements live up to expectations, the two countries would integrate efforts to clear goods and people crossing the border, to improve infrastructure, to harmonize safety standards for consumer products and to share information about who and what is setting foot on the other’s shores…

This article is available in its entirety at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/breaking-down-borders-canada-us-trade-and-security/article1893932/

The following is excerpted from the 4 September 2010 edition of “montrealgazette.com”.

Opposition is growing to the Canadian Border Security Agency’s (CBSA’s) recent decision to close two Canadian border stations south of Montreal next spring.

The mayor of Franklin, Suzanne Blair, will be holding a news conference next week to launch a petition drive. And the largest employer in the region, Les Vergers Leahy, has written federal authorities a strong letter of protest.

News of the proposed closings has also been greeted negatively south of the border.

Gary Douglas, president of the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce, told Plattsburgh’s Press-Republican that the unilateral decision by Canada to close the two border stations violates the 2002 U.S.-Canada Smart Border Accord.

“The failure of the Canadian government to co-ordinate with the U.S. government is absolutely mind-boggling,” he said.

The two border stations south of Montreal are among three nationally that were tagged last month by the CBSA for closing next April, because of budget cuts.

The Franklin Centre and Jamieson’s Line border stations are situated south of the towns of Franklin and Huntingdon, respectively. The third station slated for closing next spring is on the Saskatchewan-Montana border…

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have asked to meet with their CBSA counterparts to explore ways of maintaining two-way traffic. The Americans don’t like the idea of one-way border crossings where you can get into the U.S. from Canada but can’t get into Canada from the U.S…

Contacted yesterday by The Gazette, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Raphael Lemaitre said the CBP has suspended renovations at the Franklin Centre/ Churubasco crossing, and the Saskatchewan/Montana one, because of the CBSA’s proposed port closures. He said American officials want to “develop a joint solution that ensures the continued security interests of both countries. During this time, CBP will also explore alternatives with CBSA to enable the continued facilitation of two-way traffic.”…

The following appeared in today’s edition of “American Shipper”.

The Obama administration on Thursday said it is seeking $55 billion to fund the activities of the Department of Homeland Security during fiscal year 2010, up $2.5 billion from the amount appropriated by Congress for the current year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection would receive $11.4 billion under the budget request, including $9.3 million more for import safety and trade enforcement personnel. Congress appropriated $11.3 billion for CBP in fiscal year 2009.

The Transportation Security Administration budget request is for $7.8 billion, up from the $6.9 billion enacted for this year.

The Coast Guard budget is $9.95 billion, up from $9.6 billion for the current fiscal year.

DHS also seeks an extra $24.7 million to $120.8 million for research into explosives detection technologies to protect civil aviation, mass transit and critical infrastructure.

An increase of $64 million would be used for modernizing background check programs for transportation workers and others. Improvements are expected to coordinate programs and reduce duplicative background checks.

DHS also requested a $10 million increase for the Intermodal Security Coordination Office to support coordinated planning with the Department of Transportation in the development of a plan for funding critical intermodal freight infrastructure needs.

The department also requested an additional $26 million to support its initiative for combating outbound smuggling of cash and firearms to Mexico, including 65 more Customs and Border Protection officers and 44 Border Patrol agents. Another $70 million in new funding is targeted at hiring 349 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, analysts and investigators.

The Coast Guard would get a boost of five cutters and two patrol aircraft if the budget is approved.

The following is excerpted from today’s edition of the “Journal of Commerce”.

Regulator and regulated would take a step closer to partnership if Customs and Border Protection adopts principles endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations at its quarterly meeting on Wednesday.

COAC members, including representatives from manufacturing, retailing and the high technology sector as well as transportation and logistics, recommended that Customs revive an importer account program that was first noted in the Modernization Act of 1993. In its new form, account-based management would help Customs achieve its strategic goals of modernizing trade processes and facilitating trade and compliance, said COAC member Bradley Shorser, director of trade compliance for Sears Holdings.

Customs has had an account management system since 1997. Importers were encouraged to develop relationships with a designated Customs officer, who acted as a single point of contact with the agency for all transaction business. The term lately has fallen out of favor with Customs, so COAC endorsed “account-based management” as the new paradigm.

Shorser said that in recent years Customs had not given account management the same kind of attention that had been given to such programs as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. As a result, account management had not grown. There were only about 50 Customs officers, mostly assigned to the largest importers….

Shorser said account-based management should be open to importers of all sizes. The program could incorporate import safety and security programs, and reduce the amount of redundant information that importers provide. It could promote the “one face at the border” idea by encouraging participation by other government agencies.

Account-based management, with the use of the Automated Commercial Environment, also could create a paperless entry system that would also be a source of business and trade analysis for importers, Shorser said.

Shorser said that companies also could benefit from the system by making quarterly instead of monthly duty payments, but COAC members questioned what Customs would require for bonds to cover a three-month interval.

Brenda Smith, Customs’ executive director of trade policy and programs, said that account-based management could provide opportunities to change the way Customs does business with the trade.

The following is an excerpt from Derek Burney’s speech to the Canadian Airports Council at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Que., on April 28., published in today’s “National Post”. Derek Burney is senior strategic advisor, Ogilvy Renault LLP.

We face some major challenges in our bilateral relationship with the U.S. They call for a strong combination of vigilance and dexterity. Let me illustrate the need to match initiatives with changing realities with a bit of history — from my own involvement with air policy during my time in Washington as ambassador to the United States. In 1989, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement had just come into effect and was aimed at transforming the Canadian economy through increasing North American economic integration.

If the FTA was to succeed fully, we also had to rethink the management of things like transportation links with the U.S., especially those in the aviation sector. Dating from 1966, the Canada-U.S. Air Agreement was stuck in a time warp, reflecting tight, cautious micro-management. It had been amended only modestly and its limited cross-border routes, along with other restrictions, impeded many rewards from the FTA. Deregulation, meanwhile, had transformed the U.S. aviation market into a network of hubs and spokes. Increased competition was leading to rationalization, code-sharing and some consolidation of the industry. The North American aviation environment was changing, but the policy framework was stagnant.

So we in the embassy tried to persuade those in Ottawa to relegate the old agreement to the museum of relics. But we faced entrenched resistance from a bureaucratic mindset in which the unerring instinct is to defend the status quo long after the quo has lost its status. Some carriers were enthusiastic. Others much less so and their apprehension prevailed.

Five years later, however, the two governments signed the Open Skies Agreement, which swept away the restrictions on cities served, the number of airlines permitted to operate and the fares that could be charged. I don’t need to tell this audience about the enormous benefits this agreement provided for Canadian travellers, shippers and airports.

My point is not to claim credit for a success in which many hands, notably the emerging local airport authorities, played a part, but to underline how important it is that all parts in a complex, modern economy adapt together to match the dynamics of change.

Today, Canada must, first and foremost, be “on guard” against protectionist impulses from the U.S. Congress. The Buy American provisions of the original House and Senate stimulus bills showed the dangerous streak of nativist fever emerging in Washington. And there are still teeth with the potential to bite Canada in the current stimulus legislation.

We need to be particularly wary of the potential for “green protectionism,” like carbon import taxes. These are measures intended ostensibly to “protect” the environment but which in fact are designed to hobble imports. There can be no more lethal mix than morality wrapped in nationalism.

In mounting our defences, we should assert the plain fact that Canada is the largest export market for the U.S. Our manufacturing and agricultural sectors are integrated. In many sectors — from beef, to autos, to steel — it is no longer possible to talk about Canadian and American products as if they were separate. As others have observed, Canada and the U.S. don’t trade things with each other, they make things together. Upwards of 70% of cross border trade is intra-firm trade.

Much of the congestion at our border is in fact protectionism disguised as security measures. Constantly changing and increasingly onerous procedures, inspection fees and more rigorous but often nonsensical labelling requirements on health and product standards threaten to erode the benefits of free trade.

During President Obama’s visit in February, the Prime Minister set the right tone on this subject. We share American concerns about threats to security. But we need to strike a healthier balance between genuine threats to security and our mutual need for smooth, efficient access across our border for people, goods and services.

The President’s comments may have indicated an openness to look at new answers but his Secretary of Homeland Security’s more recent remarks, equating the U.S.’s northern border with its southern border, and exaggerating the threat, fly in the face of history and reality. Some remedial education is called for on that front. Our ambassador to the U.S. characterized these comments as “misconceptions.” That, by the way, is diplomatese for “flat wrong.”

We should be looking at a Canada-U.S. perimeter approach on security, making more intelligent use of technology on our external border while relieving congestion on our internal border. By perimeter, I mean extending NORAD to land and sea as well as air, allowing the two countries to move many border functions, such as product safety inspection and risk assessments, away from the border. Canadian and American personnel already work side-by-side in five major seaports targeting North American shipments from third countries. We need more of that.

For cross border travel, one size should not fit all. The greater the number of companies and citizens that become trusted shippers and travellers, the greater our mutual security. I am sure there are also ways we could relieve customs congestion at airports like Pearson.

A sharper focus is also warranted on the nexus of energy security and the environment. Canada is, significantly, the largest and most reliable supplier of oil, gas and electricity to the United States. That is a key point and that is why a dialogue on clean energy, launched during President’s Obama’s February visit to Canada, makes sense. That is why efforts by our two governments to chart a common path toward effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions — bilaterally and globally — makes sense. If we each go our own way — with a spaghetti bowl of separate initiatives at national, state and provincial levels — we will do precious little for our shared environment, and, most likely, undermine our economies along the way.