CITA Report
Breathing Lessons
Transportation is a lot like oxygen, you don’t think about it until it’s not there. While it is unlikely this is the kind of adage your grandmother may have imparted to you as a child, it is certainly an adage that has come home to roost for anyone trying to conduct trade with the United States since September 11, 2001.
The horrific events of “9-11” have focused the Canadian government’s attention on the oxygen of trade: the transportation system. And as the United States locked down the border in response to the terrorist attacks, the air was getting very thin.
But the fact of the matter is that the air supply was deteriorating well before Al-Qaida crashed three planes into American institutions. In response, my organisation joined a Coalition of approximately 44 groups to offer government concrete, and practical recommendations that would not only place trade relations between Canada and the U.S. in good stead during these troubled times, but address the shortcomings of the process of conducting trade between our two nations.
The Coalition formulated its recommendations in three parts: Customs, Immigration and transportation. In its some 30 recommendations to the Prime Minister, it advised government that it needed to implement short, medium and long-term solutions in an effort to correct the issues that existed on September 10, 2001.
• A common-sense approach to customs and border management to ease congestion through the use of technology and pre-clearance, and moving as much processing as possible away from Canada’s borders based on better risk management and greater cooperation between the Canadian and U.S. governments and their agencies;
• Improvements to immigration security designed to preserve the integrity of the system in a way that will keep immigrants coming into Canada by using risk management techniques, data sharing, and new technology to minimize opportunities for fraud and ensure that people entering and staying in Canada have the legitimate right to be here; and,
• Investments in transportation infrastructure to facilitate the movement of goods and people, and address bottlenecks to ensure that we can effectively take advantage of the technology and process efficiencies proposed for border management.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Coalition is not recommending anything radical, or even particularly new. On the customs side, it is urging that Canada and the U.S. revisit the 1995 Border Accord signed between the two nations and get on with instituting those recommendations.
The Coalition is also recommending a perimeter approach that reinforces the processes already in place at the 49th parallel. This means that agents from both jurisdictions ought to have a place at high volume points of entry to facilitate traffic through North America. Just as there are American agents at major Canadian airports, so too should the two countries seriously consider stationing like personnel at marine ports.
With minor changes to current regulations and legislation, it would be possible to establish joint first-line facilities at land border points. The Coalition is adamant that queues should not extend across vulnerable infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels.
The key point that the Coalition is expounding is that jurisdictions should strive to achieve mutual recognition of their security measures. This is not an unfamiliar concept in transportation and it is a far cry from the nervousness that words such as harmonization engenders in some elements of the Canadian public.
From a transportation and logistics perspective, renewed attention is being paid to the discrepancies that exist in Canada’s customs model to that of the United States. One of the lessons learned from the 30-km lineups in the 72 hours following September 11, is that a transactional customs system between Canada and the U.S. is not sustainable over the long term. What is most frustrating is that actions such as the suspension of border programs like Canpas and Nexxus have actually reduced security at the border rather than improved it. The imperative remains to move the North American trading zones to the risk assessment model favoured by Canada.
Admittedly, the American administration does not have its attention focused on its trading partners. But Canada cannot wait until the U.S. is ready to talk about the issues. The Coalition’s primary raison d’être is to ensure this government has a plan ready to implement. It is encouraging that the Americans have been willing to sit down and sign a border accord. It is imperative to continue to press the issue and ensure that trade issues remain on the agenda of senior cabinet ministers on both sides of the border.
There is much work that needs to be done. Without making the changes recommended by the Coalition for Secure and Trade Efficient Borders, NAFTA countries will not reach the full potential of the trade accord. With Canada overwhelmingly dependent on its trade with the U.S., we have far more to lose.
It’s the air of our economic existence.