Canada should join the Pacific Alliance

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It’s time for Canada to join the ‘second NAFTA’ of the Pacific

Colin Robertson

Special to The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, May. 21 2013

During his trip to Peru and Colombia this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the Pacific Alliance Leaders’ Summit in Cali, Colombia. Launched in April, 2011, the Alliance is a free-trade bloc made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

Last year, Canada became an observer to the Alliance. Why? Because it represents what we are trying to achieve through our Americas strategy.

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The Americas strategy – announced in 2007 as a major foreign policy initiative of the ‘new’ Harper Government – is designed to revive and expand Canadian political and economic engagement in the Americas.

Interpreted by some as an effort to distinguish itself from previous governments’ focus on Africa, progress on the Americas strategy has been more tortoise than hare.

At the outset, attention to the Americas was diverted by the global economic mess that demanded all hands on deck. Then the government reopened the door to China, and public attention shifted to the Pacific.

At the same time there is the promise, still unrealized, of the Canada-Europe Trade Agreement. And, as always, there is the United States and the eternal quest around secure access for our goods, people and services.

All of this left little time for the rest of the Americas. There remains some skepticism about our ability to sustain relationships. It takes two to tango and our overtures were not always met with enthusiasm. There were problems, not all of our own making.

Mexico, with whom we should have the strongest partnership, was preoccupied with the existential war with the drug cartels.

Brazil, now the world’s seventh-largest economy, has global aspirations. Notwithstanding our long commercial ties, especially in resource development, we have had our differences over beef and Bombardier.

Canada recently began negotiations with Mercosur – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela, but it’s complicated. Argentina doesn’t like our policy on the Falklands and we don’t like its protectionism. Cuban admission to Mercosur – the Brazillian goal – presents problems.

Still, there has been progress on the strategy.

On the democracy front, we have participated in 47 OAS electoral observation missions in 17 countries since 2009, and Canadians played a lead role in brokering the peace in Honduras. But promoting democracy is a work in progress. Even post-Chavez, populist authoritarianism continues to cast its seductive spell.

We play a growing role in security through targetted development and assistance programs aimed at strengthening policing and the judiciary. Our warships patrol the waters on both sides of the Isthmus of Panama to preserve maritime order and stem the drug trade.

In the last four years we have concluded free-trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and Honduras.

With more than 2,500 Canadian companies active in the region, our overall trade since 2007 has increased by a third. Canadian interests account for 60 per cent of the region’s international mining investment. This map visibly demonstrates the network of our development and investment initiatives.

But we need to do more if we are to realize the opportunities for our goods and services. Latin America’s middle class now numbers 50 million – it grew by 50 per cent during the past decade.

As a first step we need to look at how we market ourselves. Investment flows are mostly one direction – from Canada to the Americas. Latinos look askance at our closed telecommunications sector. Our labour costs are a comparative disincentive to investment in manufacturing, except as part of supply chain dynamics.

Secondly, we need to apply the creativity we have demonstrated in our immigration policy to our visitor visa program.

Having fixed the loopholes in our refugee policy, we should lift the visa requirement on Mexico that has cut visitors by more than a third since its imposition in 2009.

During a meeting with Mexican president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto in November, Mr. Harper said he’d like to see visa-free travel. Why not announce it in Cali? We could also establish a fast-track a Nexus-standard visa for Alliance members.

And, as a third step, let’s take a chance on the Pacific Alliance and seek full membership.

It would give Canada a “second NAFTA”, argues Latin scholar Carlo Dade, and complement the Trans-Pacific Partnership, currently into its 17th round of negotiations in Lima. With Japan’s inclusion, the TPP will cover nearly 40 per cent of global economic output and one-third of all world trade.

The Pacific Alliance is smaller but the degree of trade liberalization is more ambitious. It aims at an integrated stock exchange, labor mobility and a single window for all moving goods. In its look at the Pacific Alliance, the Economist sensed a “hard-nosed business deal, rather than the usual gassy rhetoric of Latin American summitry.”

Its member countries are four of the fastest growing economies representing one-third of the population of Latin America. Collectively it constitutes the world’s ninth biggest economy.

We have FTAs with each member. We risk losing the advantage of those agreements if we continue to sit as an observer.

Importantly, they want us. “Canada is a natural fit” said Mexico’s Foreign Affairs vice-minister Sergio Alcocer last week.

They recognize in us a like-minded country with a deep democratic tradition that is serious about liberalizing trade and investment. From our perspective, we have more pull with them than alone.

Built around western-style free markets, the rule of law and democratic politics – the essence of our America’s strategy – it’s time to move beyond observer status in the Pacific Alliance. Our place should be at the main table.

See also:

Canada not joining Pacific Alliance trade bloc yet

Andres Oppenheimer: While Pacific Alliance thrives, Mercosur withers

Pacific Alliance: the most exciting thing going on in LatAm these days

Guest post: LatAm’s Pacific Pumas, beyondbrics
Guest post: the Pacific Alliance and why it matters, beyondbrics

Canada-US trade: Much ado about labelling

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COLIN ROBERTSON
Special to The Globe and Mail Published Friday, May 17 2013,
What’s in a label? In the case of Canada’s export of cattle and hogs, constrained by the impact of U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL), about $1-billion in potential retaliation.
It is a scenario that we need to avoid.
The May 23 deadline is fast approaching for U.S. compliance with a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that found U.S. labelling laws constitute an unfair trade barrier.
Unless the U.S. makes changes, Canada (and Mexico) will seek authorization to take retaliatory trade action. In our case, this is estimated at a billion dollars on U.S. products coming into Canada.
Today, especially in the case of commerce with the United States, we don’t so much trade as make things together ranging from soup to cereal and especially in the case of trains, planes and automobiles.
Beef and pork products aren’t that much different.
We breed weanlings in Manitoba and truck them south to fatten on Iowa corn. Heifers born in Wyoming are shipped to Alberta’s feedlot alley, then back across the border for slaughter in Washington state, Colorado or Nebraska. Some of the cuts return for sale in Canada, making us America’s top market for beef exports.
It works well unless you are a pig farmer in North Dakota or a rancher in Montana imagining your profit margin erode as Canadian competition is trucked south.
Like most trade disputes, COOL has elements of both high policy and low politics.
At first glance, the case for country labelling seems reasonable. Why shouldn’t consumers know what they’re eating and from where it came, especially with tales of toxic toys and tainted dog food from China? And why can’t we turn Canadian produce into a premium brand like Kobe beef or New Zealand lamb?
The problem is labelling.
A cow is processed into 300 different bits. Think of 3000 or 5000 cattle – a day’s slaughter in some packing houses – as though they were packs of cards and then separate them from deuce to ace for labelling purposes. For products like ground beef and sausages it is an impossible task.
To avoid this, packing plants will ‘Buy America,’ even though cutting off the Canadian supply will cost jobs in feed yards and perhaps shutter some U.S. slaughter houses.
Over the last decade – WTO trade litigation moves glacially – Canada and Mexico argued that the U.S. action constitutes an unfair trade practice. We won, but the U.S. Congress, in refusing to amend the original farm legislation, has put the Obama Administration in a tough spot. It needs to craft a way forward by May 23 that satisfies both U.S. law and the WTO ruling.
For now, in tandem with Mexico and our U.S. allies, we will push the U.S. to achieve a legislative fix through Congress, perhaps when the Farm Bill comes up for renewal this fall.
At the same time, we will develop and then submit to the WTO those goods on which we will seek to apply retaliatory tariffs. This process will take months.
Developing a list of U.S. goods to impose retaliatory duties is hard. What can we choose that won’t potentially damage Canadian consumers and manufacturers? So much of what we produce we make together.
Throw in the additional complication of targeting our list to have maximum impact on constituents of the dozen or so members of Congress behind COOL. But we can’t make it personal. An adversary on one file is an ally on the next.
We’ve been through retaliatory process over softwood lumber. After much effort – consultations with the provinces and industry – we put a duty on aquarium fish imported from the U.S. It was an elephantine process that gave birth to a minnow.
We have right on our side, but does it justify a trade war? A billion dollars is about half a day’s trade in what continues to be the world’s biggest bilateral trading relationship. Our agricultural trade is estimated at $38-billion annually.
As for the U.S., how does this help President Obama to double U.S. exports as part of his jobs recovery prescription? How does antagonizing the next-door neighbours secure a Trans-Pacific Partnership designed to renovate the NAFTA?
COOL comes at a time when we are deep into efforts to both ease passage for goods, people and services at the border and to eliminate silly regulatory differences. When we are done we will have set, once again, the standard for innovative trade negotiation.
The dispute does underline the need to develop alternative markets. It’s another reason to hang tough in the European trade deal negotiations around better access for our pork and beef.

Meantime, there is a ‘cow pie’ called COOL. Let’s figure this one out.

See also:

On Shipbullding & Sovereignty and the Royal Canadian Navy

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Canada’s shipbuilding program is too important to run aground on poor planning

Colin Robertson

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, May. 08 2013, 7:18 AM EDT

Will we ever see steel cut on our promised new fleet of Arctic patrol craft and new warships for the Royal Canadian Navy?

Yes, but it will require continuing political will in holding to schedules and budgets and resolve in the face of relentless criticism.

Reports about the high cost for the design of the Arctic patrol craft come on the heels of the Parliamentary Budget Office warning that the new Navy supply ships are over budget and behind schedule. The Auditor General has announced he will investigate the entire procurement process.The bite of austerity also threatens that we will end up with both less ship and fewer ships.

With memories still fresh of the F-35 controversy, the government is seeking third-party expertise for the shipbuilding exercise.

It will need it if the multi-billion dollar project, designed to provide us with a new Navy and to re-create a Canadian shipbuilding industry, is to beat back the bean counters.

With three oceans at our back and the longest coastline in the world, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that Canada and its economy “float on salt water.” On any given day, one third of Canadian Tire’s inventory is at sea.

Our maritime interests fall into two baskets: advancing international law as surety for our sovereignty and preserving the freedom of the seas for our trade and commerce. Negotiation of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea is one of the greatest triumphs of Canadian diplomacy. Canadian jurisdiction was extended to the continental shelf, effectively doubling our ocean estate.

With 40 per cent of our landmass in our northern territories, and 25 per cent of the global Arctic, securing international recognition for Canada’s extended continental shelf is a priority. Later this month we retake the chair of the Arctic Council, although we still need to explicitly spell out how we will advance this agenda.

Our ability to enforce the law and guarantee safe passage depends on naval power.

For the last two centuries first the Royal Navy and then the United States Navy have preserved maritime order and secured our sea-lanes. Austerity and fiscal constraint is now straining the U.S. capacity and they have called on the Alliance to share the burden.

We need to do our part for reasons of self-interest and collective security.

Piracy, and the trafficking of guns, drugs and people, last year cost the global economy more than $6-billion. Our warships are part of the international force in the Persian Gulf actively stopping piracy. Last November, HMCS Ottawa participated in a major drug interdiction off the east coast of Costa Rica that netted more than 1,000 kilos of narcotics.

Our Halifax-class frigates are being refurbished and, after a troubled refit, all four of our Victoria-class submarines will soon be at sea.

But we need our new ships.

Made-in-Canada ships will cost more than buying off-the-shelf because the goal is to recreate a Canadian shipbuilding industry. The Jenkins Report argues that we can leverage our shipbuilding to develop key industrial capabilities.

Our model should be the revitalized Canadian aerospace industry. Ranked fifth in the world in overall aerospace production, it is third in civil aircraft production and is well integrated in global value chains.

But creating a world-class shipbuilding industry won’t be easy.

Much of the success of our aviation industry, as well as our resurrected auto industry, is because they are part of a North American integrated market. This is not the case for shipbuilding because the U.S., through its Jones Act, requires all U.S. internal shipping to be carried by U.S. ships built in the United States. This unabashedly protectionist legislation should be one of our prime targets in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations.

Seventy years ago, we were a central part of the Allied effort to win the Battle of the Atlantic. At the beginning of the war we possessed six warships and a complement of 3500.

Our shipyards employed more than 125,000 workers and built more than 4,000 vessels. Merchant ships were constructed in an average of 307 days.

Our warships and the more than 25,000 merchantmen that they escorted across the Atlantic were Britain’s lifeline. Winston Churchill would describe the Battle of the Atlantic as the “dominating factor all through the war…everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome.”

At war’s end the Royal Canadian Navy was the world’s third-largest, with a complement of 95,000 sailors and 270 warships. Today, our complement is less than 14,000 with 33 warships. We rank well back, even behind the Turks, Indonesians and Greeks. Yet our economy, increasingly, floats on salt water.

Let us keep faith with the sailors and shipyards that won the Battle of the Atlantic. Our national interest requires a strong Navy backed by a muscular shipbuilding industry.

A former diplomat, Colin Robertson is vice-president of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute and (Hon.) Captain, Royal Canadian Navy.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/canadas-shipbuilding-program-is-too-important-to-run-aground-on-poor-planning/article11778104/#dashboard/follows/

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A towering white marble monument honouring Canada's navy was unveiled in Ottawa Thursday. Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the navy's full story should be told and understood.

Tribute

Video: New navy monument dedicated in Ottawa

On ‘working’ the Canadian message in Washington

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Canada’s Keystone XL pitch goes into overdrive

Officials have been averaging a trip to Washington every two weeks in 2013, but some insiders warn that they could be wearing out their welcome.

by CHRIS PLECASH |  The Hill
Last Updated: Wednesday, 05/01/2013 9:43 am EDT

Federal officials are stepping up efforts to make the case for the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington D.C., but some experts warn that the frequent public visits could be doing more harm than good.

Between federal Cabinet ministers and Western Canadian premiers, Canadian representatives have been averaging a trip to Washington every two weeks in 2013, with a focus on making the case for the Keystone XL pipeline and addressing concerns over Canada’s environmental record.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) is the latest federal minister to make the trip. Mr. Oliver was in the U.S. capital on April 24 and 25 to speak at the Center for Strategic International Studies and meet with senior officials in the Obama Administration, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and U.S. State Department under secretary Robert Hormats, as well as the chairs of the House and Senate Energy and Commerce committees.

In a teleconference following his speech last week to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in which he accused former NASA climatologist James Hansen of “exaggerating” the impact of oilsands development on climate change, Mr. Oliver told media that part of the reason for his visit was to dispel “myths” about Canada’s environmental record.

“It’s important to be here because Washington is presenting an important opportunity to have a fact-based discussion about Keystone XL which will enhance national security and environmental cooperation, create jobs, and foster long-term economic prosperity,” he said.

Mr. Oliver’s trip came two weeks after Environment Minister Peter Kent (Thornhill, Ont.) was in Washington, D.C., to attend the Major Economies Forum on Climate and Energy and discuss Canada’s environmental record.

Two days before Mr. Kent’s visit, it was Alberta Premier Alison Redford, along with Environment Minister Diana McQueen and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Cal Dallas making the rounds in Washington.

Ms. Redford, who also attended the National Governors’ Association winter meeting in Washington in February, spoke at the Brookings Institute during her latest visit and more recently contributed an op-ed to Congressional newspaper Roll Call making the case for Keystone XL and highlighting her province’s commitment to sustainability.

“We await the State Department’s decision on the project, and we know approving the Keystone XL pipeline is the choice of reason,” Ms. Redford wrote.

Canadian officials have been going out of their way to get Washington’s ear on Keystone now that the U.S. election is over and the State Department’s Environmental Impact Assessment for the TransCanada project has been released.

While official visits are essential to diplomacy, it’s unclear whether the frequent appearances are helping or hurting the case for Keystone XL.

Retired diplomat Colin Robertson told The Hill Times that it is important for Canadian officials to maintain their presence in Washington and complement the work done by Canada’s diplomatic mission.

“If you’ve got a big issue, you have to play by Washington rules, not Canadian rules,” said Mr. Robertson, a former minister of Canada’s Washington Embassy and former consul general in Los Angeles. “That means being in Washington and being up on the Hill, going to the think tanks, being visible to make your case, and talking to editorial boards.”

Even if Keystone isn’t the primary reason for a ministerial visit to Washington, the project is still likely to be discussed informally, Mr. Robertson said.

“It may not be on the official agenda, but it certainly is our number one ask,” he said. “You’re never sure which intervention you make is actually going to be the one that persuades them.”

David Manning, who was appointed as Alberta’s Washington envoy in February, agreed that it is important for Canadian officials to be “incredibly active” with U.S. officials in making the case for Keystone XL, but also avoid getting caught up in U.S. domestic politics.

Mr. Manning, former president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and a former deputy minister of energy for Alberta, said there’s been a conscious effort to keep Ms. Redford’s Washington meetings “bipartisan.”

“When [Premier Redford] came down, we were very careful that her meetings were bipartisan,” Mr. Manning said in an interview with The Hill Times. “Alberta thinks that a bipartisan approach is critically important. The issue has become somewhat partisan — this is Washington.”

U.S. politics has become intensely partisan in recent years and at points in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, Keystone XL risked becoming a serious campaign issue. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney went as far as saying that he would approve Keystone XL “on day one” of his administration.

President Obama turned down the initial Keystone XL proposal in January 2012, but TransCanada reapplied with an alternate route soon after. The President did approve TransCanada’s 780-km long Gulf Coast line from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast in March, 2012. Construction began last August and the line is expected to be in service later this year.

If approved, the 1,897-km keystone pipeline would have the capacity to deliver up to 800,000 barrels of western crude daily to Steele City, Nebraska where it would feed into existing pipeline infrastructure bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The federal government made a deliberate effort throughout the U.S. election campaign to avoid making statements on Keystone that would be used as political fodder.

Mr. Oliver said that the government is going out of its way to be “respectful of the U.S. process.”

“They certainly have welcomed our involvement and in a number of cases have encouraged us to continue in that regard. I haven’t had any signals, direct or indirect, nor to my knowledge has anyone else in the government, that the advocacy on our part is unwelcome,” Mr. Oliver said.

However, one Washington-based consultant said on background that the Keystone XL debate has led numerous U.S. state and federal lawmakers to address “ill mannered letters” to President Obama, and that attacks by Keystone advocates in the U.S. have done little to help the project’s chances for approval.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall recently made a point of joining 10 U.S. governors in signing a letter to President Obama urging that Keystone XL be approved “swiftly” — a move that the source described as “not helpful.”

The source said that visits by federal and provincial officials are important, but they needed to be “measured” in their frequency and tone.

“You can only go to the well so many times and one has to be really careful,” the source said. “What’s really valuable is the visits by senior public servants who have come to Washington. They know the details, they know the science and the economics, and they’re speaking to counterparts who ministers aren’t talking to.”

The consultant is optimistic that Keystone XL would likely be approved, and added that in the meantime, Canadian officials need to continue to talk about their environmental efforts because the President “doesn’t want to be the guy making the case for Canadian environmental policy.”

“Every time the Prime Minister has talked to [President Obama] in a bilateral discussion or on the margins of an international meeting, the Prime Minister has been very direct on this and very straight and consistent in talking quietly to the President,” the source said. “The President gets it, but he doesn’t want to be the guy to defend [Keystone].”

One former diplomat was more blunt on the recent public push from Canadian officials.

“[F]amiliarity breeds contempt,” said the ex-foreign service officer. “Visitors from Canada constantly importuning Congress and the Executive Branch can be perceived as somewhat tiresome at best, counterproductive at worst.”

There is greater consensus over Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer’s ability to represent Canada’s interests in Washington.

Mr. Robertson said that the former Manitoba premier “gets it” when it comes to working with the U.S. on shared interests.

“[A]s premier he was constantly going south of the border,” said Mr. Robertson. “That’s paid off in spades because governors he got to know when he was premier are now people like [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano, Agriculture Secretary [Tom Vilsack], and Health and Human Services Secretary [Kathleen Sebelius].”

Mr. Manning credited the ambassador for being “a strategic operator.”

“We have an ambassador that understands provincial issues, this is his background,” he said.

cplecash@hilltimes.com

Border fees

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Border crossing fee a bad idea

Proposal by U.S.
to recoup security costs would simply create more obstacles at border
A proposal being floated by the United States to hit travellers with a new crossing fee at U.S. land border crossings is, not surprisingly, coming under attack on both sides of the 49th parallel.
The new levy is being proposed as a way to help the cash-strapped U.S. cover increased security costs. But the problems it will cause – not to mention the bad PR with Canadians who travel to the U.S. for either business or pleasure – is going to make any such fee more trouble than it’s worth.
As the executive director of the Canadian Snowbird Association and its 70,000 members suggested in a Canadian Press story in Tuesday’s Herald, U.S. officials are reaching into Canadians’ pockets in their effort to ease the country’s financial plight.
“While we appreciate the fiscal challenges faced by our friends in the United States, we would prefer the U.S. government focus on ways to reduce obstacles at the border that hinder trade and tourism,” said Michael MacKenzie. “People feel like maybe they’re being nickel and dimed a little bit and politicians are taxing people who can’t vote, which makes sense politically but it just sends the wrong message.”
Air passengers already pay a fee to enter the U.S. but it is included in the price of the plane ticket. Hitting up travellers crossing the border by land presents a greater logistical problem. There are an estimated 140,000 vehicles and 400,000 people traversing the Canada-U.S. border every day, accounting for roughly $1.6 billion in trade daily between the two countries. Throwing an extra fee into the mix would cause delays when the focus should be on reducing obstacles to cross-border traffic, not creating new ones.
As a commentary piece by Colin Robertson in Wednesday’s Globe and Mail asked, “Does the U.S. really want to slow down traffic and turn the border agents into toll collectors when their primary task is to look for bad guys?”
The answer, of course, is no, not if they’re smart.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce says the proposed fee would be a “serious mistake” and is promising to lobby against the proposal.
“Any fee on travellers crossing the border is bad for individuals and for the economy,” the chamber said.
The U.S. government might not be concerned about a fee being bad for individuals, but it might want to think again before doing something that will hurt the economy. Such an outcome would ultimately come back to bite Washington in the pocket by eroding any fiscal gains from the new fee.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion refers to an action creating an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, putting into motion a new crossing fee on land travellers would surely produce a negative reaction. In fact, the mere suggestion already has.

Border tolls, Windsor-Detroit Bridge, Digital Diplomacy

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A border-crossing fee is exactly what the U.S. and Canada do not need

Colin Robertson  Special to The Globe and Mail Wednesday, Apr. 24 2013

Margaret Atwood once remarked that if the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.

But is paranoia towards the United States justified? Not usually. Take a closer look at reports of a new border-crossing fee that are creating a lot of noise.

This is not protectionism. Rather, the across-the-board budget cuts mandated by U.S. laws (the “sequester”) have obliged all departments to become more creative in funding. Within the 2014 Department of Homeland Security budget is a recommendation to conduct a study on whether to collect a fee from pedestrians and vehicles crossing between the United States and Canada by land.

The new revenue, Secretary Janet Napolitano told Congress, would pay for the hiring of new customs and border officers. There might be something for us in the scheme as without new staff, the chances of getting pre-clearance at Toronto’s Island Airport are slim. But the first call will be to staff the southern border because enforcement will be a key part of any new immigration deal.

Unlike budgets in Canada, however, what goes into the congressional legislative process bears little resemblance to what comes out the other end. This is why the U.S. legislative process has famously been compared to sausage-making.

The checks and balances inherent in the U.S. system mean that regional and sectoral interests can also be counted on to block such initiatives.

A new toll “is the absolute last thing we should be doing if we want to grow the economies of Western New York and the U.S.,” warned Buffalo Congressman Brian Higgins. “To slap travellers here with onerous fees is a bad idea,” argued New York Senator Chuck Schumer. “We don’t need a study to tell us that.”

There is also the practical problem.

An estimated 400,000 people and 140,000 cars cross our border daily. Does the U.S. really want to slow down traffic and turn the border agents into toll collectors when their primary task is to look for bad guys?

We need to distinguish between what is noise – the Homeland Security proposal – and what is important.

What is important is that the biggest infrastructure project at our largest border gateway – the new Detroit-Windsor bridge – was recently given a Presidential permit with the backing of nine D.C. agencies.

The bridge odyssey has taken 14 years and constant effort by our Detroit consulate and the Ontario and Canadian governments. We are fronting a half-billion dollars for its construction, which is also the estimated daily value of the goods that cross this vital gateway. There will be more bumps before the traffic flows, but we are at the beginning of the end.

The lesson we can draw from both the DHS kerfuffle and the bridge saga is that we need to wage a permanent campaign in the United States on behalf of Canadian interests.

We need a thousand points of contact to complement our embassy and our consulates. This means taking our game to the States because by the time a problem reaches Congress we are fire-fighting.

Recent budget paring in Canada has reduced our consulates in the United States to fifteen. Yet, what we need is representation in every state. We can do it, within budget, by doing diplomacy differently.

Recruit talent from the Canadian expatriates who are already living in each state. Let them practice digital-age diplomacy. Drop the black tie for a BlackBerry and a working knowledge of new media.

With some exceptions – our embassy’s prime location on Pennsylvania Avenue is crucial, and the Los Angeles consul-general’s residence is a second home for Canada’s entertainment industry – these diplomats can work from their homes or incubator offices to spot opportunities for trade and investment.

As U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson repeatedly reminds us, the most important thing the United States can do to help the Canadian economy is to get the U.S. economy back on track. For 35 American states, their principal export market is Canada.

This trade supports nearly eight million U.S. jobs, a fact not lost on President Barack Obama, who has promised to ‘export’ the U.S. back into prosperity. Last year U.S. exports to Canada exceeded total U.S. exports to China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore combined.

Canadian exports to the United States were almost three times greater than our combined total to the rest of the world. Trade with the United States represents almost half of our GDP.

A half century ago, Minister of Trade and Industry George Hees encouraged members of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service to ‘bust your ass’ for Canada. The instruction stands.

A former diplomat, Colin Robertson is senior advisor to McKenna, Long and Aldridge LLP and vice president of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

UPDATE:

Sen. Leahy wins ban on border fee as Senate Judiciary marks up immigration bill

Here’s the latest from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on the immigration bill being worked on in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A news release from his office reads as follows:

On a bipartisan voice vote, Thursday approved legislation authored by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and cosponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) that blocks the creation of a land border crossing fee.

The amendment was Leahy’s first to file and be offered to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, which the Judiciary Committee is currently considering. The amendment responds to a request by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Obama Administration’s budget to study charging admission for pedestrians and passenger vehicles crossing land borders into the United States.

Leahy, who represents one of the ten states that border Canada, said such a fee would deflate thriving commerce that is important to all the Northern Border states, and it would limit cultural interchange.

“Canada is the United States’ number one trading partner. Some 300,000 Canadians cross into our country every day and spend nearly $235 million,” said Leahy, who earlier this week released a guest column on the issue. “Our nation has always had strong cultural and commercial ties to our neighboring countries, and my amendment would protect these important relationships.”

Ballistic Missile Defence under review

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Excerpted from Michael Woods in the Ottawa Citizen April 22, 2013

U.S. reportedly asks Canada to join missile shield

OTTAWA — The United States has reportedly asked Canada to join an anti-ballistic missile shield, resurrecting a potentially thorny political issue in this country.

The request, as reported Sunday by CTV, comes amid heightened concerns over North Korea, which has been levelling bellicose rhetoric at the United States of late…

A spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay would neither confirm nor deny the report that the U.S. had approached Canada about participating in a missile-defence shield.

“Canada has declined to participate in ballistic missile defence in the past. We constantly review the security situation internationally,” spokesman Jay Paxton said in an email to Postmedia News on Sunday.

Appearing on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews also declined to confirm or deny the report.

“I think we need to have a broader discussion about that, and I’m not prepared to venture an opinion at this time,” he said.

“What I can say is co-operation with our allies, especially in relation to a terrorism-related threat, is absolutely essential to keeping Canadians safe.”

In 2005, Paul Martin’s Liberal government declined to join the United States’ missile defence program, prompting ire from the Bush administration.

Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat, said it’s now in Canada’s best interests to participate in an anti-ballistic missile shield with its southern counterpart, in light of changing global security considerations and improved technology.

“To me, it’s an insurance policy,” said Robertson, vice-president and senior research fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. “You hope you never have to use it, but you want to be sure that you’re protected.”

Robertson, who is also a distinguished senior fellow at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, said although North Korea’s actions have been garnering attention, the larger long-term threat could come from Iran, whose nuclear program is continuing despite strict international sanctions.

“The Americans are reasonably comfortable that they have the capacity to head off anything (from North Korea),” he said. “But if something came over the pole from Iran, that’s a different dimension, and that would also potentially be a more serious threat to Canada.”

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, speaking on CTV, said Canada should “not act as if we’re going to have missiles sent at us tomorrow” and instead should press China, North Korea’s foremost ally, to pressure the isolated dictatorship into changing course.

“In 2005, it was not just Paul Martin that said no. Canadians overwhelmingly said no to this approach,” he said.

Ballistic Missile Defence

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As nuclear-armed North Korea continues to threaten war, a former Canadian diplomat says it is time for Canada to reconsider its decision to not join a ballistic missile defence program.

“You can’t be sure whether something aimed at the United States isn’t going to strike Canada. Our interest is in protecting Canadians, ” Colin Robertson said in an interview on the Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark.

Robertson’s call comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un began mobilizing long range missiles and cleared his army to launch a nuclear attack on North America. Diplomats in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang have also received warning that their safety will not be guaranteed past Wednesday and have been urged to leave.

Although no one is absolutely convinced Kim has the capability to follow through with his threats, the United States has sent a land-based missile defence weapon to Guam, where it has a base. The weapon would detect any attacks and could likely keep Canada safe — even though both the Stephen Harper Conservatives and the Liberal government before that have both refused to endorse the protective umbrella.

“The circumstances have changed and it’s probably time to reconsider that decision,” Roberston said. “Why wouldn’t we be part of this, particularly because conditions are changed and now our homeland is threatened?”

If Canada joined ballistic missile defence, Robertson said, it wouldn’t mean putting weapons on Canadian soil.

Instead, Canada’s main contribution would be satellite technology to track missiles coming over the North Pole.

“This takes us back to Canada’s geography and our critical placement as kind of the backdoor, or the screen, towards America,” Robertson said.

While there’s an open invitation for Canada to join ballistic missile defence, Robertson said he doesn’t expect U.S. officials to pressure their Canadian counterparts into making a decision.

“They understand the Canadian position,” he said. “They do not want to be George Bush … Eisenhower or Kennedy – don’t push Canada because you create such a reaction in Canada, that becomes the issue. It becomes Canada versus the United States, and that’s not where they want this to be.”

TRANSCRIPT

Tom Clark:
Welcome back. The world continues to watch in disbelief as a sociopathic madman with nuclear weapons threatens war, urging foreign embassies to evacuate by this Wednesday; a warming that so far most countries have ignored. Kim Jong-Un has mobilized his long range missiles while clearing his army to launch a nuclear attack on North America. Now while no one is absolutely convinced that he has the capability to carry out its threats, the United States has sent a land-based missile defence weapon to Guam. Now should North Korean missiles be launched, the American defence system would keep Canada safe, even though both Liberal and Conservative governments in the past have refused to endorse the protective umbrella.And one of the people who is calling on Canada to join Ballistic Missile Defence is Colin Robertson, a former senior diplomat in Canada’s Foreign Service. Thanks very much for being here Colin.

Colin Robertson:
Good to be here Tom.

Tom Clark:
First of all, make the case why Canada should be involved? Why is that in our self-interest to be involved in ballistic missile defence?

Colin Robertson:
Governments have three general purposes: sound currency, keep law and order and our safety net at home, and external defence. This is external defence. We are potentially threatened now by recent developments in North Korea and Iran so that if they were to launch inter-ballistic missiles aimed at the United States, we can’t be sure that they wouldn’t land in Canada. And for that reason, we should protect Canadians.

Tom Clark:
When we talk about ballistic missile defence, are we talking about putting missiles on Canadian soil? What’s our involvement in that?

Colin Robertson:
That’s a good question. Less likely now they put interceptors in Canada although they could. More what they really want is to the use the technology that we already have, satellite technology, to track the missiles, particularly anything coming over the Poles; stuff coming across the Pacific, the Americans feel reasonably confident they can get from their various tracking stations: Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, California. But we could make a useful contribution from what we have in places like Goose Bay and across the country.

Tom Clark:
So this is like an extension of NORAD in a sense.

Colin Robertson:
This takes us back to the DEW Line. This takes us back to Canada’s geography and our critical placement as kind of the back door or the screen towards America which was the whole purpose behind our earlier involvement in things like the DEW Line, that led to the creation of NORAD, which protects North America, because you can’t be sure whether something aimed at the United States isn’t going to strike Canada. So our interest is in protecting Canadians.

Tom Clark:
In an article you wrote recently, you revealed that last year, Defence Minister
Peter MacKay and Foreign Minister John Baird went to Stephen Harper and laid out the case for Canada joining Ballistic Missile Defence. He turned it down. What do you know about that?

Colin Robertson:
My understanding is that the prime minister judged the timing wasn’t right.

Tom Clark:
Meaning?

Colin Robertson:
Meaning, the timing was not right to participate…

Tom Clark:
Politically.

Colin Robertson:
I would think politically, yes, at the time. My view is that the circumstances have changed and it is probably time to reconsider that decision. The rest of the alliance is part of missile defence. We, as members of NATO, support what the alliance is doing to provide ballistic missile defence within NATO in Europe but we have a kind of exemption, a cone, if you will, around Canada. Frankly we should be part of that. The Australians, the Koreans, the Japanese all see value in ballistic missile defence.

Tom Clark:
And the Europeans as well.

Colin Robertson:
Of course.

Tom Clark:
We’re sort of the outlier in this case by not being part of it. But when you take a look at the decision of two Canadian governments – Liberal and Conservatives. In 2005, Pierre Pettigrew, then the foreign minister, said no to ballistic missile defence – basically Paul Martin saying no. Now we have Stephen Harper saying no. So what is the Canadian political case for not joining in? Because Liberals and Conservatives have both now said no?

Colin Robertson:
The Canadian case is essentially that we’re protected anyways and that we don’t really need to participate because the Americans will include us in their umbrella as it is. But my view on that is do we want the Americans always providing our defence? A fundamental principle of Canadian security is collective security. We were the architects of NORAD. We went into NATO for that very reason; protection of the collective and it also gives us leverage. Why wouldn’t we be part of this particularly because conditions have changed and now our homeland is threatened? That’s the argument. The argument is this is in the Canadian interest.

Tom Clark:
In the minute or so that we’ve got left, I want to ask you what you’re hearing from the Americans on this because while we, as you correctly say, feel that we’re protected anyway, we’re just not going to join the automobile club because we’re going to get a tow if we break down. But what are the Americans telling you?

Colin Robertson:
The invitation is there. They are not, however, pushing us. They understand the Canadian position. They do not want to be George Bush, and if you go back to Eisenhower and others, Kennedy … Don’t push Canada because you create such a reaction in Canada that that becomes the issue. That is, it becomes a Canada versus the United States, and that’s not where they want this to be. They have what they need. It would be useful if Canada would joined, but they’re not going to put any pressure on us to join.

Tom Clark:
And very quickly in 10 seconds, when we turned it down in 2005, George W. Bush was in the White House. Was that the real reason why he said no to ballistic missile defence do you think? We didn’t want to be seen to be siding with George Bush?

Colin Robertson:
I think that the political calculation of that relationship with the United States, it’s the old Goldilocks’ rule, don’t get too close but don’t get too far away. It’s trying to find that fine balance that every prime minister has to try and find.

Tom Clark:
Colin Robertson thanks very much for being here today. Good discussion.

Colin Robertson:
Thank you Tom.

Canada, North Korea and Ballistic Missile Defence

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North Korea’s threats show that Canada needs to be part of U.S. missile defence pact

Special to The Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Apr. 03 2013, 9:27 AM EDT

(see also Andy Radia’s Canada Politics report and CTV report on Minister Toews  Question Period interview .)

Canadian prime ministers have three files with a permanent place on their desks: national security, national unity and the U.S. relationship. When those files intersect, they require special attention.

Sooner rather than later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to reconsider the Canadian decision to stay out of Ballistic Missile Defence.

The catalyst is North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un is the third in his family to lead the Hermit Kingdom, and this month has all but declared war – including threats to target North America. Normally, sabre rattling by tinpot dictators can be managed or contained. But not when the sabres are ballistic missiles.

“Nuclear threats are not a game,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Tuesday: “Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability.”

Coupled with the improvements that Iran is making to its own ballistic missile capacity, the threat to North America is now clear and present. The United States has moved aircraft and warships to the area and announced that it will increase its ground-based interceptors in California and Alaska.

Canada has a conflicted history when it comes to nuclear weapons and domestic defence from them. Though we were present at the creation – nuclear-energy research during the Second World War in Canada was vital – we eschewed the development of nuclear arms for ourselves. Instead, we opted to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes through the CANDU reactor.  (We were later deceived by the Indians, who developed their own nuclear weaponry using plutonium derived from a research reactor provided by Canada.)

Placement of nuclear warheads on Canadian soil, as part of our alliance commitment, tormented John Diefenbaker and the resulting BOMARC controversy contributed to his government’s undoing. Lester B. Pearson, who succeeded Mr. Diefenbaker as prime minister, faced similar dissent but concluded that our obligations to NORAD and NATO required participation. Mr. Pearson, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize over the Suez crisis, was derisively labelled the ‘defrocked prince of peace’ by a young Pierre Trudeau.

Two decades later, prime minister Trudeau faced similar divisions in his own cabinet over testing of cruise missiles on Canadian soil. Mr. Trudeau allowed the testing, arguing that “it is hardly fair to rely on the Americans to protect the West, but to refuse to lend them a hand when the going gets rough.”

In good company (with Australia, France et al), prime minister Brian Mulroney rejected participation in the U.S. “Star Wars” missile-defence program because Canada “would not be able to call the shots.”

When Ballistic Missile Defence was developed under George W. Bush, prime minister Paul Martin opted out, to the confusion of his new defence chief and ambassador to the United States, both of whom thought that he was going to sign on.

A divided Liberal caucus, especially the opposition from Quebec, had helped change Mr. Martin’s mind.

Mr. Bush was advised that newly-elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper would not welcome a renewed request. Mr. Bush found this puzzling, reportedly asking what would happen if a North Korean missile, aimed at Los Angeles or Seattle, wound up heading towards Vancouver or Calgary.

The rest of the alliance, as well as Australia, Japan and South Korea, have signed onto missile defence. The Israelis’ Iron Dome recently demonstrated the defensive worth of anti-missile technology.

Critics see Ballistic Missile Defence as a latter-day Maginot Line – costly, unreliable, and provocative. If you want to detonate a nuclear bomb in the United States you would not send it by missile. NORAD, they argue, provides sufficient defence. But continental defence has been integral to Canadian national security since MacKenzie King and Franklin Roosevelt parleyed at Kingston in 1938. We were architects of NATO because of our belief in collective security.

The U.S. defence umbrella has guaranteed the peace since 1945, and has coincided with the greatest growth in trade in world history. Canada has been a principal beneficiary, with marginal premiums. Some Canadians, wrote Mr. Trudeau during the cruise missile debate, “are eager to take refuge under the U.S. umbrella, but don’t want to help hold it.”

Membership in the alliance entails obligations. But it also brings great benefits that serve our national interests.

Incorporating our satellite and land-based tracking facilities into Ballistic Missile Defence could make a difference in shielding Canadians should the missiles be launched. A Senate report in 2006 concluded that an effective BMD “could save hundreds of thousands of Canadian lives.”

Protecting Canadians (and Americans) was the logic of the original DEW line and NORAD, our bi-national aerospace defence agreement that has served us since 1958 and now includes aspects of maritime defence.

Last summer, ministers John Baird and Peter McKay prepared a memorandum for Mr. Harper presenting Ballistic Missile Defence options. The Prime Minister decided the timing was not right. Circumstances have changed. BMD should now be incorporated into our ‘Canada First’ defence strategy.