08 March 2002

White House Hails Progress with Canada on Smart Border Action Plan

The United States and Canada will expand a border-crossing program for low-risk travelers to three new ports of entry along the British Colombia-Washington state border by summer 2002, according to a joint statement issued March 8 by U.S. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley.

Following a March 8 meeting at which Ridge and Manley continued discussions on the 30-point Smart Border Action Plan, the two officials also announced that by March 25, 2002, the United States and Canada will have joint teams of customs officials in the ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, Seattle-Tacoma, and Newark. These bi-national teams will target maritime shipping containers bound for either the United States or Canada at their first port of entry into North America.

The statement noted that this initiative "will contribute to the secure and efficient flow of goods across the Canada-U.S. border."

The Office of Homeland Defense released details of the 30-point Smart Border Action Plan on January 7. The plan calls for improving the management of people and goods across U.S. borders through measures such as biometric identification, compatible immigration databases, and the advance sharing of airline passenger information on flights between the United States and Canada.

Following is the text of the White House announcement:

Joint Statement By The Deputy Prime Minister Of Canada, John Manley, And The Director Of The White House Office Of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, On Progress Made In The Smart Border Action Plan

Joint Statement by The Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, John Manley and the Director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge on progress made in the Smart Border Action Plan

John Manley, Canada's Deputy Prime Minister, and Governor Tom Ridge, Director of The White House Office of Homeland Security, met on Friday March 8, 2002, to continue discussions on the 30-point Smart Border Action Plan outlined in the Smart Border Declaration. They issued the following joint statement after their meeting:

"Since our last meeting, we have made significant progress on several key border initiatives.

We are pleased to announce that, as a result of the Smart Border discussions, the NEXUS program for low-risk travelers will be expanded to three new land border ports of entry along the British Columbia/Washington State border. They are the Pacific Highway, Peace Arch, and Boundary Bay (B.C.)/Point Roberts (WA) crossings. We anticipate that NEXUS will be up and running at these ports of entry by summer 2002. By this summer, we also expect to announce a schedule for the expansion of NEXUS to other land border ports of entry. This builds on the successful pilot project at the Sarnia (Ontario)/Port Huron (Michigan).

By March 25, 2002, Canada and the U.S. will have joint teams of customs officials in the ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, Seattle-Tacoma, and Newark to target marine containers destined for either country at their first port of arrival into North America. This initiative will contribute to the secure and efficient flow of goods across the Canada-U.S. border.

Finally, on February 14, 2002, the In-Transit Preclearance Program at Vancouver International Airport was re-opened. The program was halted as a result of broad security initiatives undertaken at airports and border crossings following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Canada and the U.S. have concluded that there are no security obstacles to resuming in-transit preclearance at Vancouver.

We are also making excellent progress on the remaining elements of the Action Plan."