This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

201750Z Apr 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 001201 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN:TBREESE, AHOLST; EB/PDAS Donnelly 
 
WHITE HOUSE/NSC FOR FARYAR SHIRZAD 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR SAGE CHANDLER 
 
HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (MARMAUD, MARTINEZ- 
FONTS) 
 
USDOC FOR 4320/ITA/MAC/WH/ONIA (WBastian, ARudman, GWord) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ECIN CA
SUBJECT: SPP: Can-Am Business Council shares views on next 
steps for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North 
America 
 
Ref: (A)Ottawa 1104 (SPP Scene Setter) 
 
     (B)Toronto 414 (Schwartz Report) 
 
¶1. Summary: Members of the Canadian-American Business 
Council (CABC), a Washington DC based industry advocacy 
group, outlined for the Charg their principal concerns that 
they think need to be addressed by the SPP. The CABC 
 
underscored the pressing need to quickly build appropriate 
infrastructure in southwestern Ontario at New York and 
Michigan crossings and suggested creation of a joint Canada- 
U.S. body to force rapid action.  The CABC members also 
noted that southbound cross-border infrastructure barriers 
are exacerbated by too few inspectors at the border and 
proliferating security policies and procedures compounded by 
lack of communication between border agency components. 
They argued that these should be addressed under the 
Security rubric of the SPP.  In contrast, they noted that 
northbound cross-border barriers do not manifest themselves 
at the port of entry but rather are market-wide and stem 
from regulatory mismatches that force business to duplicate 
health and safety tests or graft a layer of seemingly 
unnecessary requirements onto the marketplace; these should 
be dealt with by a mechanism under the Prosperity rubric. 
The Charg emphasized the need to have industry CEO's 
 
champion SPP initiatives in Ottawa and Washington DC. End 
summary. 
 
¶2. On April 12 the President of the CABC, Shauneen Bruder 
(also a Vice President at Royal Bank of Canada) and David 
Scott, Senior Partner of the law firm Borden, Ladner, 
Gervais hosted Charg Dickson and FAS, FCS, DHS and ECON 
section chiefs at a luncheon meeting to discuss the SPP. 
Other CABC members present included: Kelly Johnston VP of 
Campbell's Soup (based in NJ), Hugh Porteous VP of Alcan 
(based in Ottawa), Emile Lindsay VP of EDS Canada (based in 
Ottawa), Scotty Greenwood, Executive Director of the CABC 
(based in Washington DC) and Lynda Watson, Minister- 
Counselor Commercial Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in 
Washington DC. 
 
¶3. The CABC is a fairly young advocacy group headquartered 
at DC-based law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge and until now 
principally has served as a voice to raise the profile of 
Canadian business among DC policy-makers.  CABC members are 
attempting to expand their role to act as an advocate for 
 
cross-border businesses both in Ottawa and DC and see their 
contribution to the SPP effort as moving them in that 
direction.  Indeed, after the luncheon with Mission staff 
the CABC delegation was scheduled to meet with senior staff 
from the offices of Transport Minister Lapierre and Trade 
Minister Peterson. 
 
¶4. When asked by the Charg to identify concrete action that 
CABC would like the GoC to take Bruder, Johnston and 
Greenwood all underscored the point that the border crossing 
infrastructure is inadequate to meet the demands placed on 
it and that the GoC could address those shortcomings by 
acting on the so-called Schwartz report commissioned by the 
city of Windsor (Ref B).  Bruder and her delegation expected 
to voice their support for the Schwartz report 
recommendations during their meeting with Minister 
Lapierre's staff.  Greenwood also briefly noted a CABC draft 
policy paper whose principal recommendation to the two 
governments is to create an international body (she likened 
 
it to the International Joint Commission), that could 
overcome NIMBYism and force concrete action by state, 
provincial and local stakeholders (although various 
stakeholders have cautioned CABC that this particular 
approach is far too ambitious.) 
 
¶5. Johnston of Cambell's Soup Company argued cogently that 
the infrastructure shortcomings are exacerbated by lack of 
U.S. inspection personnel at key crossings.  In particular 
Johnston noted that: there are too few USDA inspection staff 
available at crossings into NY and MI from ON, which leads 
to long wait times at ports of entry for their trucks with 
frozen soup concentrate; and also that different policies 
and procedures employed by CBP and USDA lead to confusion 
(he gave the example of CBP not re-sealing inspected 
containers whereas USDA does). 
 
¶6. With respect to FAST and CT-PAT programs intended to 
speed commerce across the border, Johnston, Greenwood and 
Bruder said that many participants have begun to question 
the value of their participation as DHS presses them to 
extend control even further back up their supply chains. 
Despite considerable investment in CT-PAT, they find that 
congestion at the border still leaves their trucks sitting 
in queues, largely due to infrastructure limitations (for 
example, no dedicated approach lanes well before the port of 
entry) but further compounded by, according to them, rapidly 
changing policy and procedure by U.S. inspection personnel 
in the field. We were told that Daimler-Chrysler and CABC 
made this complaint to senior DHS and NSC staff at a meeting 
the week prior. 
 
¶7. The CABC members suggested that infrastructure and 
inspection solutions must be found by thinking "outside the 
box"; and praised innovative ideas like having private 
companies pay for infrastructure improvements as has 
happened in a few instances on the southern border. 
Johnston of Campbell's Soup expressed interest in paying to 
have U.S. border inspection personnel perform inspections at 
their plants. 
 
¶8. With respect to barriers to northbound commerce, the CABC 
group indicated that Canadian port of entry delays are much 
less of a factor than the various technical barriers 
encountered in the Canadian market, principally due to 
regulatory mismatches with the United States.  They trotted 
out the familiar cases of different food fortification 
standards in the two countries and restrictions on the size 
of baby-food containers (soup cans apparently face similar 
restrictions).  They are heartened by the SPP emphasis on 
reducing these barriers but did not advocate a specific 
course of action. 
 
¶9. More strategically, the CABC group noted that with 
respect to the Prosperity Agenda that they are interested 
in: ensuring harmonization of IPR regimes in the two 
countries and ensuring that research and development across 
North America be exploited most effectively to ensure North 
America's competitiveness vis--vis the EU and Asia. Again, 
 
it appears it is too early for them to offer a specific and 
detailed course of action. 
 
¶10. Comment: CABC like many other groups we have heard from 
are first of all encouraged that there is a process underway 
to take into account their views on those items which 
require fixing for those engaged in cross-border 
business.  They also have a checklist of items that we are 
hearing from other groups - build new infrastructure, 
consolidate processes and facilities, address shortages of 
staffing.  End comment 
 
Dickson