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RUEAIAO/HQ ICE IAO WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 OTTAWA 002048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV ASEC KHLS ECON CA
SUBJECT: THE U.S. - CANADA BORDER IN 2007: GROUND TRUTH AND 
POLICY IMPLICATIONS (PART II OF III - PORTS OF ENTRY, 
TRADE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT) 
 
SUMMARY 
--------------- 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED--PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1. (SBU) As part of a year-long effort to "map the border," 
Mission Canada officers fanned out along the frontier to 
observe ground truth in how the border functions and how to 
make it work better.  Part I of this three-part series 
covered our conclusions and recommendations.  This message 
covers reports on ports of entry, trade, and the environment. 
 Message III covers WHTI, law enforcement, and First Nations 
issues. 
 
PORTS OF ENTRY - A SERIES OF GATES WITH NO FENCES 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (SBU) In September 2004 meetings in Ottawa with U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) counterparts, Canadian 
Deputy Minister of Public Safety Margaret Bloodworth 
described the U.S.-Canada border as "a series of gates with 
no fence between them."  This is an apt description of the 
5,500 mile border running through land and waterways all the 
way from the Atlantic Ocean to Alaska.  Along this border 
there are some 120 "gates," or ports of entry, including 
eight at Canadian airports served by CBP preclearance 
officers.  These ports run the gamut from mammoth facilities 
staffed by hundreds of personnel, like the Detroit-Windsor 
crossing, to small shed-like structures where a half-dozen 
officers (three from each country) share a common inspection 
area and even joint kitchen facilities. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The U.S. and Canada are attempting to make our ports 
"smarter" by introducing technology that offers both enhanced 
security and quicker processing time.  Radiation and X-ray 
portals can conduct an inspection without a physical search. 
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are being developed 
at the ports to link information about incoming and outgoing 
traffic in order to expedite the flow of traffic.  Simple 
electronic fixes, like lighted arrow signs to direct vehicles 
to the least congested lanes, or infrastructure innovations 
like dual-use inspection booths that can handle either trucks 
or cars depending on traffic volumes at a particular time, 
have been introduced at many crossings.  Larger, more 
expensive improvements, like adding lanes to existing 
bridges, expanding truck plazas or building new bridges, such 
as is contemplated at Detroit-Windsor, are efforts to ensure 
that the flow of goods and people is not impeded as volumes 
of both grow in the future.  It will be important to track 
new infrastructure projects to make sure that they are, in 
fact, keeping up with increasing demand. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Canadian politicians as well as ordinary citizens 
have expressed concern over the increased security 
implemented along the border following 9/11.  They frequently 
talk of a "thickening" of the border, and Canada's 37-member 
border caucus in Parliament sent a letter to its counterparts 
in the U.S. expressing dismay that the increasing scrutiny 
given to those wishing to cross the border to visit family or 
friends, attend a church service or ball game, or just to buy 
a pizza, was "diminishing" the relationship between Canadians 
and Americans.  Indeed, for years the residents in the many 
Qand Americans.  Indeed, for years the residents in the many 
small communities that straddle the border may not have 
needed to show a border inspector anything more than a wave 
and a smile to be permitted to cross; now, however, that has 
changed. 
 
ECONOMY AND TRADE - MAINTAINING PREDICTABLE MARKET ACCESS 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) With over US DOLS 1.5 billion worth of goods and 
services moving across the border daily, Canada and the 
United States are each other's largest customers and biggest 
suppliers.  To put this in perspective, in 2006 Canada 
exchanged more goods with the U.S. each month than it did 
with any other country throughout the entire year. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Canada's merchandise trade with the United States 
totaled US DOLS 507 billion in 2006.  By value, this trade 
was conducted by truck (61 percent), rail 17 percent), 
 
OTTAWA 00002048  002 OF 003 
 
 
pipeline (13 percent), air (5 percent), and sea/inland 
waterways (4 percent).  Around 75 per cent of Canada-U.S. 
trade (in value terms) carried by trucks went through just 
six border crossing points:  the Ambassador Bridge linking 
Detroit and Windsor; the Peace Bridge linking Buffalo and 
Fort Erie; the Blue Water Bridge linking Port Huron, 
Michigan, and Sarnia; Champlain/Lacolle between New York and 
Quebec; Pembina/Emerson between North Dakota and Manitoba; 
and Pacific Highway between Washington and British Columbia. 
The Detroit-Windsor Corridor is the busiest trade artery, 
accounting for almost 30% of total Canada-U.S. trade. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Given the magnitude of the transborder economic 
relationship and the high degree of Canadian dependence on 
the American market, the United States' post-9/11 increased 
attention to security at the border is a major source of 
on-going anxiety for Canada's government and business 
community.  Since 2001 maintaining and enhancing secure, 
predictable access to the United States economy has been a 
primary objective of Canadian governments.  In discussions at 
the several working groups that meet to discuss border issues 
and what might happen in the event of a crisis, U.S. 
officials frequently use the term "business resumption." 
Canadian officials speak of "business continuation" and are 
loth to think that the border could ever be fully shut down 
again as it was in some places in the days immediately after 
9/11.  Of course, this anxiety regarding keeping the border 
open, even during an emergency, is shared by many members of 
the U.S. private sector whose businesses depend on a 
predictable and uninterrupted supply of raw materials, parts, 
or finished products from Canada. 
 
¶8. (SBU) As a consequence, any new U.S. policy or action that 
impacts the border, however seemingly minor, precipitates a 
massive reaction from government and the private sector.  The 
imposition of the APHIS fees in early 2007 is a case in point 
with the government in Ottawa and the Canadian Chamber of 
Commerce, among others, describing the modest fee as 
potentially the "straw that broke the camel's back."  A 
recent survey of industry by the Conference Board of Canada 
found no evidence to suggest that post-9/11 border policies 
have served to reduce Canadian export volumes to the U.S. 
Nevertheless, industry representatives and Canadian 
government officials at the provincial and federal level 
continue to raise concerns about potential disruptions in 
trade between the two countries, in the form of 
security-related delays and increased compliance costs. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Maximizing the free flow of goods, services, and 
capital with the U.S. (and leveraging that relationship in 
the global marketplace to enhance Canada's profile and 
opportunities) is a key priority for Canada.  In response to 
the need to maintain, and indeed enhance the transportation 
and border infrastructure that supports U.S. - Canada trade, 
the Canadian government has adopted a "National Policy 
Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors" to 
guide investment and government action.  The Policy Framework 
Qguide investment and government action.  The Policy Framework 
also notes that Canada, due to its proximity and access to 
the United States, could serve as the "platform" to connect 
North America with the world, for example, via Vancouver Port 
which has high container capacity and rail connections to the 
mid-west, south-central and eastern United States.  The 
Policy Framework also pins high hopes on development of the 
new container port at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, as a 
transshipment point from which Asian goods will be moved all 
the way to the Atlantic coast. 
 
TRANSBOUNDARY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES - WATER, AIR, WASTE 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) The U.S. and Canada work closely together to manage 
transboundary environmental issues.  One major instrument of 
this cooperation is the International Joint Commission (IJC), 
established as part of the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to 
resolve differences and promote cooperation on our shared 
waters.  The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972, 
another historic example of joint cooperation, is 
instrumental in managing the world's largest repository of 
fresh water, and the U.S.-Canada Air Quality Agreement serves 
 
OTTAWA 00002048  003 OF 003 
 
 
as the primary mechanism for binational cooperation to 
address transboundary air pollution issues. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Notwithstanding the close cooperation and general 
goodwill, some friction does exist.  Current transboundary 
issues of concern include:  a new outlet from Devils Lake in 
North Dakota which channels water into the Red River system 
and onward to Manitoba; Ontario's concerns about increasingly 
poor air quality in southern Ontario, including Toronto, 
which some claim is largely due to coal-burning power plants 
in the Ohio River Valley; and the movement of up to 400 
truckloads a day of trash from the Greater Toronto Area to 
Michigan landfills. 
 
¶12. (SBU) This last issue illustrates the complexities of the 
border relationship and the multiple jurisdictions it 
involves.  Canada and the United States have open borders for 
waste shipments - which are considered tradeable goods - and 
waste has flowed across the border in both directions for 
many years.  Figures from the Canadian government as well as 
from states and provinces show that the United States is a 
net exporter to Canada of hazardous waste.  However, because 
of plentiful landfill capacity, low-cost disposal options, 
and existing contractual arrangements, the United States is a 
much larger net importer from Canada of non-hazardous solid 
waste. 
 
¶13. (SBU) The influx of waste has been highly controversial, 
in part because of the limited legal authority of state and 
local governments to restrict it.   Only Congress can 
authorize restrictions to interstate and international 
movement of trade, including waste.  Nevertheless, 
Congressional interest in stopping the flow of trash led to a 
voluntary agreement between Michigan's two Senators and the 
Ontario Ministry of the Environment, under which Ontario 
committed to eliminate shipments of municipally managed waste 
to Michigan by the end of 2010.  While the agreement does not 
formally bind the United States or Canada or the parties 
shipping and receiving the waste, or address commercial waste 
shipments to Michigan, It may reduce the controversy.  Also 
working to defuse the issue is the city of Toronto's recent 
acquisition of additional landfill capacity in Ontario. 
 
 
 
Visit our shared North American Partnership blog (Canada & 
Mexico) at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap 
 
Visit our shared North American Partnership blog (Canada & Mexico) at 
http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap 
 
WILKINS