Thank you Embassy Magazine for laying out the timeline for the Canada-U.S. border talks. I hope they don’t mind my reproducing it here. The article by Carl Meyer, which you can read here, explains that like in the Security and Prosperity Partnership talks, a big problem area will be pre-clearance.
“Canada has wanted more pre-clearance facilities for years, but American officials have worried that because it does not have the authority to arrest people and detain them while in Canada, terrorists could exploit the system, probing it for weaknesses,” writes Meyer. “In 2007, the Bush administration tried to work out a pilot project at the Peace Bridge crossing at Fort Erie, Ont., but it fell on its face.”
A Washington Post article from 2007 that’s still online explains, “The [U.S.] government wants to be able to take suspects’ fingerprints and compare them with terrorist and criminal databases, U.S. government officials said. The prints could be stored in databases for future use if, for instance, the traveler seeks to enter at another border crossing.”
“If an individual presents themselves for admission and makes a decision about not wanting to come in, there’s a reason why,” said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke in the Post article. “It could be perfectly benign. But it could be that they sense that we’re onto them for criminal activity or potential security concerns. We have an interest in knowing who that person is.”
Stockwell Day rejected the idea at the time because Canadian law does not allow fingerprints to be taken from people not accused of a crime. Business lobby groups complained that failing to put a pre-clearance system in place would cost them millions of dollars. Of course that was before Harper simply incorporated those business lobbies into the new perimeter security plan, possibly overriding earlier concerns about Canadian laws and privacy protections.
According to Embassy, the Department of Homeland Security is warming up again to the idea of pre-clearance. “The perimeter plan makes a broad commitment to move forward on the issue with Canada,” says the article. “As well, on Dec. 9, in a discussion with the Council on Foreign Relations about pre-clearance facilities around the world, [DHS Chief Janet Napolitano] said it was ‘a big deal’ for the department and ‘a huge step forward.'”
Will the new border plan succeed where the SPP failed? Roland Paris, director of the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa, tells Embassy (paraphrased), “The perimeter plan did not dispense with the long-standing issues plaguing the Canada-US relationship and border… It commits to reaching agreement on many issues by December 2012, but it remains to be seen what that agreement will contain.
“It will also require a huge amount of political push, he added, something that will be hard to come by in a Washington preoccupied with the presidential race.”
David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which has pledged its support for the perimeter deal and will be campaigning in its favour, tells Embassy the SPP “was a tarnished brand, but the issues didn’t go away.” Chris Sands, a senior fellow at the US-based Hudson Institute, adds “people felt that it (the SPP) was a bunch of secret negotiations on things, and there wasn’t enough transparency or accountability to the process,” and that there is a danger of that happening again.
The Council of Canadians will be campaigning against the worst parts of the perimeter deal in the new year, including some of the plans for regulatory harmonization which could, if done improperly or only to business lobby preferences, endanger food safety and public health.
Here is the timeline Embassy printed in this week’s edition, compiled by Carl Meyer based on information in the Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness Action Plan:
In 2011-12 / immediately:
– Pursue ratification of Shiprider framework agreement.
– Launch pilot regional resilience assessment program.
– Begin deployment of US-certified explosive detection systems equipment at pre-clearance airports.
In early 2012:
– Establish bi-national port operations committees.
By Jan. 31, 2012:
– Determine the way ahead on information and intelligence in support of law enforcement and national security.
– Establish or identify and leverage existing joint Canada-US pacific region committee.
By March 2012:
– Evaluate and achieve mutual recognition of respective air cargo security programs for passenger aircraft.
– Reduce number of air cargo loads re-screened to zero.
By March 31, 2012:
– Implement joint marketing campaign to promote trusted traveller programs.
– Develop plan to expand NEXUS lanes, booths and access to lanes at jointly identified ports of entry.
– Report publicly on plan toward implementing new technology at all identified border crossings within identified time frames.
– Develop action plans for bi-national port operations committees.
By May 30 / May 31, 2012:
– Create inventory of Canadian and US domain awareness capabilities at the border.
– Complete a joint statement of joint Canada-US privacy principles.
By June 2012:
– Produce common set of manifest data elements.
-Conduct detailed comparison and review of the customs self-assessment and importer self-assessment.
– Develop criteria to extend the applicability of the Free And Secure Trade card for drivers.
– Initiate one-year pilot to provide for advance review and clearance of official certification and alternative approaches to import-inspection activities for fresh meat.
– Identify and develop solutions to operational impediments to the effectiveness of US pre-clearance operations at Canadian airports.
– Establish bi-national mechanisms for conducting joint critical and cyber infrastructure risk analysis.
By June 30, 2012 / summer 2012:
– Develop common set of required data elements for all modes of transport for advance security screening of cargo.
– Launch phase I of the integrated cargo security strategy.
-Extend FAST benefits to members in certain programs at agreed locations.
-Jointly develop plan to incorporate third-country traveller programs.
– Extend NEXUS membership eligibility to expat Canadians and Americans.
– Provide enhanced administrative guidance and training to border officers.
– Develop and implement operational and administrative policies and requirements to facilitate the movement of specialized personnel.
– Review the effectiveness of existing redress and recourse mechanisms for business travellers whose applications are denied.
– Develop co-ordinated project investment and implementation plans that will constitute the first bilateral five-year border infrastructure investment plan.
– Develop joint action plans for all small ports and incorporate recommendations into the infrastructure plan.
– Publish wait-time service levels at key crossings.
– Deploy two regularized Shiprider teams.
– Complete the scope of operations and program architecture for the next-generation integrated cross-border law enforcement pilot projects and deploy two pilot projects.
– Develop preliminary planning guides for emergency response.
– Convene the first beyond the border executive steering committee.
By July 2012:
– Initiate a one-year pilot to provide tier-two benefits to the processed food sector.
By Aug. 31, 2012:
– Develop and implement specific approaches to incorporate designating documents onto the NEXUS client profile for predictable expedited clearances.
By September 2012:
– Identify and evaluate options under which trusted traders could use alternate processes and approaches to submit advance data elements.
– Launch phase II of the integrated cargo security strategy.
– Fully implement Canada’s Partners in Compliance program.
– Completed and distribute to members a report with recommendations on pilots or new initiatives in regards to additional ways to expedite border processes.
-Implement a truck cargo facilitation pilot project in at least one location in Canada.
By Sep. 30, 2012:
– Create a joint inventory of existing intelligence work and a gap analysis.
– Begin implementation of a pilot project exchanging the data of third-country nationals, permanent residents of Canada and lawful permanent residents in the US.
– Improve current, or establish new processes under which all categories of business travellers may request adjudication of employment and related petitions by the destination country’s immigration authorities to identify and resolve potential issues prior to the actual date of travel.
– Publish and make public a joint report on border fees.
By Oct. 30 / Oct. 31, 2012:
– Identify gaps and vulnerabilities in Canadian and US domain awareness capabilities.
– Conduct a tabletop exercise to validate concepts and mechanisms for emergency response.
– Establish the working groups that will develop work plans and validation metrics for bi-national plans and capabilities for emergency management.
By December, 2012:
– Conduct a review of the FAST program.
– Negotiate a pre-clearance agreement in the land, rail and marine modes.
– Complete negotiations to conduct full pre-clearance of goods and travellers at Massena, US.
– Implement solutions to operational impediments to the effectiveness of US pre-clearance operations at Canadian airports.
– Complete study on policy, program or operational changes required to move inspections for wood packaging material away from the border to the perimeter.
By Dec. 31, 2012 / end of 2012:
– Develop assessment processes and joint site-visit plans for commodities of common interest from third countries.
– Develop joint methodologies, including audit criteria, for conducting food safety audits.
– Develop joint audit plans to pilot the evaluation of foreign food-safety inspection systems in third countries.
– Develop a protocol for what information from food safety audits can be shared.
– Complete negotiations to conduct full pre-clearance of travellers and accompanying goods at Vancouver, BC, for US-bound rail and cruise ships.
– Identify and implement administrative and operational improvements to redress and recourse mechanisms for business travellers whose applications are denied.
– Complete and distribute to stakeholders a report on the progress of facilitating the conduct of cross-border business.
– Conduct full evaluation of the bi-national port operations committees.
– Release the initial Beyond the Border implementation report.
By winter 2012-2013:
– Report on results of the emergency response planning exercise and finalize a schedule of periodic reviews of concepts and processes.
By 2013:
– Consider new bi-national port operations committees.
– Implement a systematic and automated biographic information-sharing capability.
– Convert the data requirements of all participating government departments and agencies to electronic form.
By April 30, 2013:
– Prioritize coverage of intelligence awareness gaps.
– Establish a process to coordinate the joint procurement and deployment of technology along the border.
By June, 2013:
– Expand NEXUS lanes and booths at select locations.
By June 30, 2013 / summer 2013:
– Establish or identify and leverage existing joint Canadian-US Atlantic and Great Lakes committees.
– Begin implementation of a program exchanging the data of third-country nationals, permanent residents of Canada and lawful permanent residents in the US, at all automated common land border ports of entry.
– Develop a set of measures to reduce the impacts of shared health-security risks.
By September 2013:
– Evaluate the one-year pilot to provide for advance review and clearance of official certification and alternative approaches to import-inspection activities for fresh meat.
By October 2013:
– Implement an enhanced, scenario-based passenger targeting methodology.
By December 2013:
– Implement a common set of manifest data elements.
– Develop an interoperable communication portal.
– Convert border-related decision processes for at least the top four priority departments and agencies to electronic form.
By Dec. 31, 2013 / end of 2013:
– Complete the pilot regional resilience assessment program.
– Make public real-time information on websites, roadside signs, and other traveller information systems on wait times.
By 2014:
– Implement a systematic and automated biometric information-sharing capability.
– Implement the integrated cargo security strategy.
By June 30, 2014:
– Expand the data exchange program to include all travellers at all automated common land border ports of entry.
– Develop a system to establish exit data.
By March 31, 2015:
– Complete the deployment of US TSA-certified explosive detection systems equipment at pre-clearance airports.
By 2015-2016:
– Deploy two more regularized Shiprider teams.
