6 things to expect in new Canada-U.S. border deal

mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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6 things to expect in new Canada-U.S. border deal




Canada and the U.S. are expected to announce a new agreement Wednesday to ease border congestion and better co-ordinate security between the two countries.

The agreement deals with three dozen or so elements of trade and security policy, but the finer points of how the measures will be implemented will be worked out over the next 12 to 18 months.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama announced the Beyond the Border talks last February, leading to a year of consultations and talks on trade and security. The two leaders, who last met in Hawaii last month as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Summit, are meeting in Washington Wednesday.

The leaders have scheduled a press conference for sometime between 2:45 and 3 p.m. ET Wednesday. CBCnews.ca and CBC News Network will carry the press conference live.

Last August, the government released its consultation report, including comments from groups in favour of better co-operation and those worried about how much information Canada is prepared to share with U.S. authorities.

The report notes Canadians make almost 40 million trips to the U.S. every year and $1.6 billion in goods and services cross the border every day. Canada and the U.S. have more trade flowing across the Windsor-Detroit corridor than any other border crossing in the world.

The consultation report also hints at what Canadians can expect in the agreement.

Here are six things to expect from Wednesday’s announcement.

1. Better aligned regulations: Canada and the U.S. still have different regulations and standards on a lot of products, on everything from vehicles to food to consumer products. Those rules can slow trade or make it harder to make goods compatible, so much so that Harper and Obama set up a separate agreement on regulatory co-operation. Canada expects this agreement to lower costs to businesses and consumers.

2. Simplified, harmonized and streamlined border processes: It's a safe bet that the government will expand existing or introduce new pre-clearance programs like NEXUS, which has almost 500,000 participants. Low-risk people can get pre-approved for travel across the border. It's also possible the government will introduce more dedicated lanes at the border for trucks transporting goods. And a number of groups recommended pre-clearance programs to avoid border inspections for goods being shipped from one country to the other.

3. One entry and exit system: Canada and the U.S. are likely to integrate their entry and exit systems so they can more easily monitor which visitors are moving between countries. Canada will have a better idea of who leaves because they’ll know when travellers enter the U.S.

4. More information sharing: The government says enhanced information sharing will mean a more efficient border because as much screening as possible will be done away from the border. Canada's privacy commissioner urged the government must make sure any information is dealt with according to the privacy protections required under Canadian law. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association called for clear appeal procedures if the two countries move to shared watch lists like the no-fly list.

5. Expanded law enforcement co-operation programs: On a trip to Canada last fall, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano referred to the Shiprider program that lets law enforcement officials work together on shared waterways like the Great Lakes. It's likely there will be more initiatives like this one in the Beyond the Border deal.

6. Co-operation on protecting critical and cyber infrastructure: One of four pillars in the initial announcement focused on critical infrastructure and cyber security. Canada and the U.S. want to improve defences against cyber attacks and make transportation and communication network security stronger. Former Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson, who was on the team that negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, wrote in Policy Options this month to expect reinforcement against cyber threats to electrical grids, oil and gas pipelines, and the circuitry for everything from ATM transactions to air traffic control.


6 things to expect in new Canada-U.S. border deal - Politics - CBC News
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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petros said:
Back in the 80's Conservatives like Reagan and Thatcher were indeed called "Neo-Liberals".
Click to expand...

It really is high time we start teaching practical philosophy and public policy in our schools.
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Canada a willing patsy in one-sided border deal

The new Canada-U.S. border deal is a classic of its kind. America gets more say in how Canada handles its affairs. Canada gets — well, Canada gets not much.

The deal announced on Wednesday in Washington by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama will soon see U.S. customs officials operating in Canadian ports and more armed U.S. agents operating on the Canadian side of the border.

Canadian airlines will be required to set up U.S.-style security systems to gather information on travellers entering or leaving Canada — and then pass the information along to the U.S.

The U.S. will be given an effective veto over who enters Canada. In the bureaucratic language of the accord, this is referred to as a “shared responsibility between Canada and the United States concerning those entering the perimeter.”

Canada will be required to give more information about its citizens and residents to the U.S. By 2013, the countries promise to put in place a “systematic and automated biographical information-sharing capability” and by 2014 a “biometric information-sharing capability.”

The two countries will also “coordinate and share resources on how people become radicalized and turn to violence.”

A new exit-control system will be put in place for those crossing the land border between Canada and the U.S. in order to “exchange biographical information on travellers.”

And in return?

In return there are promises. Both sides promise to spend more on border infrastructure such as bridges. But that requires money. And in the U.S., the federal purse strings are controlled by Congress, which had no part in this deal.

Tellingly, one of Canada’s priority border infrastructure projects — a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit — received no mention.

Similarly, there are promises to launch pilot projects that will speed up truck traffic across the border — a longstanding Canadian demand.

Such promises have been made before by the U.S., but with little effect.

On Wednesday, Harper said the new pact will make it easier for “legitimate” Canadian travellers to cross the border.

In fact, the deal could do the reverse. Business people who cross into the U.S. frequently are being encouraged to submit to a pre-screening procedure that would allow them to avoid most border hassles.

But tourists and other travellers who don’t take this route are likely to find the new border regime even less hospitable.

In fact, the quantum increase in shared information is likely to lead to more of those mistakes that have come to characterize America’s flawed no-fly regime.

It’s hard to blame the U.S. for the one-sided nature of this deal. Under both the Liberals and the Conservatives, Canada’s federal government has been a most willing patsy.

It was a Liberal government that ordered its security services to pass on every unsubstantiated rumour to the U.S., a practice that resulted in the arrest, jailing and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar.

And it was a Liberal government that, after 9/11, allowed America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation to vastly expand its operations in Canada.

By 2006, agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also operating here.

In 2007, the Harper Tories went one step further by permitting American agents working in Canada to freely carry arms. Before that, foreign operatives — such as U.S. secret security agents accompanying the president — needed special one-time permits.

On Wednesday, Harper lauded the new border deal as the most-important Canada-U.S. pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He was right — but not because this deal will do much for trade.

Canada News: Walkom: Canada a willing patsy in one-sided border deal - thestar.com
 
grumpydigger

grumpydigger

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Mar 4, 2009
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I certainly don't like More information sharing about Canadian citizens.

Harper seems to be preparing to turnover Canadian sovereignty to the United States......in a North American union type situation....

I guess because it's worked so well in Europe
 
Locutus

Locutus

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Jun 18, 2007
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Canada gains a lot and gives up very little in U.S. border deal



Prime Minister Stephen Harper trumpeted the new perimeter security and economic competitiveness deal with President Barack Obama as the opening of the next chapter in Canada’s “marvelous” relations with the United States.

“It is the most significant step forward in Canada-U.S. co-operation since the North American Free Trade Agreement,” he said in a speech at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.

Sounds impressive but what will it mean to you? At least initially, not much. Regulatory co-operation means you will be able to go to your grocery store and buy “peameal bacon,” a term that is apparently “not permitted” in Canada now, even though we invented bacon rolled in yellow cornmeal (our regs demand it be called “back bacon” apparently).

The other prong of the deal is action to keep the border as open as possible. As the various pilot projects are rolled out, air travellers might miss fewer connecting flights and their baggage may arrive more often, as double baggage screening is eliminated. At land borders, wait times should fall as “trusted traveller” programs like NEXUS are expanded and pre-clearance for cargo means that the honking great truck in front of you is waved through more quickly.

But the real gains will be less obvious — namely, a reduction in border costs that the government’s best estimate puts at $16-billion a year or 1% of GDP. One of the pilot projects will see goods landed at Prince Rupert, B.C., checked and loaded there and shipped to Chicago by rail, without the current requirement for re-inspection when it crosses the border in Minnesota.


Increased co-operation in policing, cyber security, critical infrastructure protection and entry-exit biographical information should make us all a little bit safer. The handing over of land-entry records from one country to the other, to establish an exit record, sounds like such a no-brainer, it is a wonder it wasn’t adopted decades ago. The federal Auditor-General has been warning for years that we have no idea what has happened to thousands of people who should have been deported, simply because we have no exit data.

The usual suspects are already lining up to pronounce all this will compromise our civil liberties. A confederacy of lefty dunces is already asserting “the primacy of human and constitutional rights over economic imperatives.” They see conspiracies at every turn — from U.S. police and security officials being allowed to operate in Canada, to the usurpation of Canadian immigration and refugee policy by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Yet there is nothing here that should cause Canadian nationalists or civil libertarians sleepless nights. The Maher Arar case still looms large, and there are legitimate concerns about individuals who have been cleared by the Canadian judicial system remaining on U.S. watchlists. But this agreement appears to do little to heighten existing concerns.




more:


U.S. border deal offers huge financial upside for Canada: John Ivison | Full Comment | National Post
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Locutus said:
Canada gains a lot and gives up very little in U.S. border deal
Click to expand...

I agree that freeing up trade restrictions will save money, but the government hasn't commented on the cost of these additional security measures. If they're so certain that freeing up trade would save 1% of GDP, then why can't they comment on the security costs?

Also, why is this government so obsessed with money that it's willing to just give away private info?


Lastly, you left out the partisan part of that article:

"The usual suspects are already lining up to pronounce all this will compromise our civil liberties. A confederacy of lefty dunces is already asserting “the primacy of human and constitutional rights over economic imperatives.” They see conspiracies at every turn — from U.S. police and security officials being allowed to operate in Canada, to the usurpation of Canadian immigration and refugee policy by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."

Yea, real classy.
 
Nuggler

Nuggler

kind and gentle
Feb 27, 2006
11,596
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Backwater, Ontario.
mentalfloss said:
Canada a willing patsy in one-sided border deal

The new Canada-U.S. border deal is a classic of its kind. America gets more say in how Canada handles its affairs. Canada gets — well, Canada gets not much.

The deal announced on Wednesday in Washington by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama will soon see U.S. customs officials operating in Canadian ports and more armed U.S. agents operating on the Canadian side of the border.

Canadian airlines will be required to set up U.S.-style security systems to gather information on travellers entering or leaving Canada — and then pass the information along to the U.S.

The U.S. will be given an effective veto over who enters Canada. In the bureaucratic language of the accord, this is referred to as a “shared responsibility between Canada and the United States concerning those entering the perimeter.”

Canada will be required to give more information about its citizens and residents to the U.S. By 2013, the countries promise to put in place a “systematic and automated biographical information-sharing capability” and by 2014 a “biometric information-sharing capability.”

The two countries will also “coordinate and share resources on how people become radicalized and turn to violence.”

A new exit-control system will be put in place for those crossing the land border between Canada and the U.S. in order to “exchange biographical information on travellers.”

And in return?

In return there are promises. Both sides promise to spend more on border infrastructure such as bridges. But that requires money. And in the U.S., the federal purse strings are controlled by Congress, which had no part in this deal.

Tellingly, one of Canada’s priority border infrastructure projects — a new bridge between Windsor and Detroit — received no mention.

Similarly, there are promises to launch pilot projects that will speed up truck traffic across the border — a longstanding Canadian demand.

Such promises have been made before by the U.S., but with little effect.

On Wednesday, Harper said the new pact will make it easier for “legitimate” Canadian travellers to cross the border.

In fact, the deal could do the reverse. Business people who cross into the U.S. frequently are being encouraged to submit to a pre-screening procedure that would allow them to avoid most border hassles.

But tourists and other travellers who don’t take this route are likely to find the new border regime even less hospitable.

In fact, the quantum increase in shared information is likely to lead to more of those mistakes that have come to characterize America’s flawed no-fly regime.

It’s hard to blame the U.S. for the one-sided nature of this deal. Under both the Liberals and the Conservatives, Canada’s federal government has been a most willing patsy.

It was a Liberal government that ordered its security services to pass on every unsubstantiated rumour to the U.S., a practice that resulted in the arrest, jailing and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar.

And it was a Liberal government that, after 9/11, allowed America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation to vastly expand its operations in Canada.

By 2006, agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also operating here.

In 2007, the Harper Tories went one step further by permitting American agents working in Canada to freely carry arms. Before that, foreign operatives — such as U.S. secret security agents accompanying the president — needed special one-time permits.

On Wednesday, Harper lauded the new border deal as the most-important Canada-U.S. pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He was right — but not because this deal will do much for trade.

Canada News: Walkom: Canada a willing patsy in one-sided border deal - thestar.com
Click to expand...




glad you posted that. An even better deal than softwood lumber. Can you imagine?!! Better than NAFTA............holy sh it!!! Are we lucky to have a great leader like Harpo or what!!!

When Stevo goes to Washington he gets his own personal barrel. Just one bung hole. Lucky lucky lucky lucky. Little does he know it's been well used.

Fukkn joke.
 
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