Should Canada join the U.S. and Mexico? On these key projects, yes
Globe and Mail Wednesday, Oct. 02 2013
North American integration has a new champion in U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden.
Looking at the United States, Canada and Mexico during his recent visit to Mexico he
wondered aloud why there is not more co-operation? “It’s just so natural, geographically,
politically, economically.”
The trilateral idea has been on life support for more than a decade. The economic gains of
the North American free-trade agreement were realized by 2000. In the wake of Sept. 11,
2001, the requirements of U.S. security curbed the further development of North
American integration.
George W. Bush made an effort at revival through the Security and Prosperity Initiative.
A Christmas tree of multiple wishes and bureaucratic bafflegab, it was quietly put into
the ‘out’ basket by the Obama administration.
The trilateral leaders meetings, once annual standalone events, are now occasional and
tacked onto other events. They have become a photo op. In substantive terms, they mask
dual bilaterals: one between the U.S. and Mexican presidents and the other between the
U.S. and Canadian leaders. Each has their own agenda.
For Canada, it is about preserving and improving access to the U.S. market. For Mexico
it is regularizing immigration and keeping out the guns that arm its drug gangs. For the
U.S., it is about security: keeping potential terrorists from slipping through Canada into
the U.S.; keeping out illegal migrants and drugs from Mexico.
Now Mr. Biden promises to shift the U.S. emphasis back to economics.His visit to
Mexico, with four cabinet secretaries, launched the U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic
Dialogue. Border infrastructure is to be modernized using new technologies to extend
hours of operation. It commits to doubling by 2020 of the number of Mexican students
studying in the U.S. and Americans studying in Mexico.
Mr. Biden should now turn his attention to the northern border. Of late, the tone at the top
has become less than constructive. The Keystone XL pipeline, as important as it is to
North American energy security, is crowding out the agenda to the exclusion of progress
on other issues.
Both leaders share some responsibility for the pipeline impasse.President Barack Obama
disses its economic advantages and has failed to recognize private sector progress in
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addressing climate change.Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not helped with his
assertion that he won’t take no for an answer and implied that he'll look to the next
administration for redress. Our energies would be better spent bringing forward longpromised oil and gas regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
We need to focus on what we can constructively do together rather than on our divisions.
This is where Mr. Biden can be helpful. As he observes, the dynamic of the North
American trading relationship has evolved. The current system is designed for the old
world of imports and exports, of tariffs and customs officials.
Today it is more about making things together. The bits and pieces, and the people that
service them, now come from a thousand points across the continent, irrespective of
country of origin. When borders become chokepoints, we lose North American
competitiveness. Recognition of this fact should be the starting point in what should be a
permanent process where the emphasis is on continental regulatory alignment and
expediting the cross-border passage of people, services and investment.
The Canada-U.S. beyond-the-border and regulatory co-operation initiatives are quietly
making progress but they could do with high-level boosting.Our security ministers have
done their work and created a perimeter, arguably with belt, suspenders and life jacket.
Now we need to see commensurate attention by our economic ministers to improve
access for goods, people and services. Get on with the promised new bridge between
Detroit and Windsor. More trade crosses that gateway than that between Japan and the
United States. It is vital to manufacturing, especially to the automotive industry that
depends on its supply chains.
Canada is putting up a half billion dollars to help fund the Michigan portion. Now we
need assurance of U.S. financing of its customs plaza.Mr. Biden should come to Canada
and begin a high-level economic dialogue that complements the one being undertaken
with Mexico. Let the two dialogues proceed in tandem with the goal of eventually
bringing them together.
With an eye to the future, Canada should join the U.S. and Mexico in doubling the
student exchanges between our countries. Once we get beyond the border, our shared
agenda should address issues including skills and training, labour mobility and mutual
recognition of credentials. This is how we will realize the promise of North America.
More Related to this Story:Marina Jimenez How a needlessly tough visa has hurt
Canada’s relations with Mexico/ A case for the three amigos There are three sides to
this story - Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, say Andrés Rozental and Robert Pastor
A former diplomat, Colin Robertson is vice president of the Canadian Defence and
Foreign Affairs Institute and a senior advisor to McKenna, Long and Aldridge LLP
[NA/CONF/PRESS/COLIN ROBERTSON-BIDEN &NA- OCT 2 2013]