Fortress Around North America

The U.S.-Canada perimeter will see Canada give up a lot to gain a little.

THE MARK: What can you tell us about the perimeter-security deal that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama have proposed?

STUART TREW: What we have so far is the joint statement that Harper and Obama released on Feb. 4. There's a Beyond the Border Working Group that's been set up, which is, from what we understand from the Department of Foreign Affairs, really focused on the border – asking questions like, “How do we get goods moving across the border more quickly, with fewer barriers and less red tape?”

The Beyond the Border Working Group is really looking at Canada's relatively insignificant request to ease the flow of goods across the border, making it less expensive for large and small business to move goods across the border – the "thick" border, as we hear from the chambers of commerce and the business lobbies. The [perspective] in the United States is, "Okay, we want an entry/exit system. We want you to harmonize with our security policies." And that would include information on who is entering and leaving Canada. The U.S. thinks that's a blind spot. It wants data, and Canada wants a little bit of extra ease of movement of goods.

There's a difference in the level this is at in Canada and the United States. In the United States, there's somebody from the western-hemisphere section of the State Department who is the lead. In Canada, there’s a senior Department of Foreign Affairs representative who answers directly to the Prime Minister’s Office. So, just to give you an idea of the importance that each side is putting on this process, in Canada, the PMO is calling the shots on this deal; in the U.S., it’s relegated to the person who would normally deal with it. Canada has probably given this deal too much weight.

At the end of the day, we're going to see an imbalanced deal that requires a lot of Canada in terms of information sharing and highly problematic security arrangements [related to] privacy and civil liberties. What we're going to get is a very modest agreement from the U.S. to help ease the flow of goods across the border. I don't think Canadians are going to see that as a good deal. I think they're going to recognize it as very lopsided as soon as they see it. The PMO has already oversold it, in terms of its importance to the Canadian economy. I think it will be very difficult to convince anyone that this is a good deal.

THE MARK: What security and economic policies are the U.S. and Canada attempting to harmonize?

TREW: Related to the Beyond the Border Working Group, there's a Regulatory Co-operation Council that was established at the same time. We're told it's separate from the security side of things, but that it has a very broad mandate to deal with regulatory harmonization or co-operation in any number of areas. These aren't specified either. If we look to past North American summits, we see that they made fun of critics by saying, "We're just talking about jelly beans." In fact, what they were talking about were things like intellectual property rights.

This is the biggest bone of contention in the United States right now. Whether it’s copyright or pharmaceutical drugs, the United States would like to see considerable harmonization on how things are regulated. The U.S. is particularly concerned about file-sharing websites like isoHunt, as well as the importation – through B.C., and other ports – of counterfeit goods from China, India, and elsewhere in Asia. File sharing and counterfeit goods are two things that just drive the U.S. entertainment industry crazy.

The U.S. feels that Canada's regime is not equipped to deal with these things, which is why we are seeing this move toward enforcement of laws against counterfeit products at border points and in transit. The United States is pushing the world to go in that direction, as is the European Union.

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Source: The Mark