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Article Excerpt
In a post-September 11, 2001, North American trade environment, dramatic change appears to be the most visible constant in the Canada-United States borderland. The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989 (FTA) and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 (NAFTA) dramatically accelerated trade across the border, resulting in significant economic expansion and committing Canada and the United States to a policy of creating a more economically open border. In order to reap more of the potential economic benefits associated with free trade, the two countries mutually embarked on the Shared Border Accord in 1995. This agreement outlined a long-term investment plan to improve transportation and border infrastructure, and harmonized regulation procedures in order to create what was then ambitiously referred to as ''the most efficient border in the world." (1)
However, the events of September 11, 2001, resulted in a number of significant and necessary policy shifts within this borderland. No longer was the focus on creating an efficient border; rather, security became the foremost priority. As a result, creating a secure border that is also efficient is now the primary objective. This is certainly a very different sort of border than anyone would have predicted when NAFTA was first signed, (2) presenting a new and difficult challenge: a challenge that threatens the very success of future North American free trade. Some analysis and researchers question the possibility of achieving both secure and efficient trade, because they view these two policies as inherently contradictory. Others have stated that free trade in North America under the new trade and security measures is not free at all that the new security measures act simply as non-tariff barriers." (1)
Clearly these security measures are here to stay, so the challenge remains to make trade and travel across the Canada-U.S. border both secure and efficient. The purpose of this article is to explore and document the impacts on trade and personal travel that are a result of the post-9/11 security measures and policies. Several new programs designed to ensure both secure and efficient trade and travel have been introduced under the Smart Border Action Plan of 2001. This article will explore and evaluate how well these programs have succeeded in accomplishing this goal. In addition, we will identify certain difficulties that exist within these programs and policies, and make recommendations on how to improve or change the strategies that are already in place to ensure both secure and efficient trade and movement of people across the border in the future.
Study Area
From a continental standpoint--Atlantic to Pacific--this is a large task. This article will therefore focus on the situation along a representative border segment: the Pacific Slope of the Canada-U.S. border, a region originally defined by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 as extending from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific via the 49th parallel and the Strait of Juan tie Fuca. Geographically limiting this study is beneficial for several reasons. First and foremost, it makes the study more manageable, Second, the border and the amount and type of trade are notably different in the western border region than in the central or eastern border regions, and these differences have up to now not been fully appreciated. Third, much of the prior research that has been conducted on this subject has been limited to the central border region primarily Ontario (4)-with little focus on the Pacific Slope. The study area (Map I) consists of sixteen border ports ranging in size from the Pacific Highway [Blaine) WA-Douglas BG crossing, which is the fourth-busiest commercial port of entry along the entire border, to more remote rural crossings such as Nighthawk WA-Chopaka BC. This study area also contains the third-busiest passenger vehicle port along the Canada-U.S. border: the Peace Arch (Blaine) WA-Douglas BC port. (5) This article will allow the western region to be compared with other research as a means of identifying similarities and differences. Last and perhaps most important, the western border region has long been committed to creative problem-solving and innovative perspectives in bi-national cooperation. For example, several pioneering programs designed to expedite frequent, low-risk travelers--Peace Arch Crossing Entry (PACE), CANPASS, and NEXUS--were first proposed and tested in this western borderland. Thus, this region has a long record of working together across the border to develop practical solutions to trade problems. A number of bi-national organizations, such as the International Mobility and Trade Corridor Project (IMTC), are already in place and committed to improving these efforts. All of these factors make the western borderland an appropriate study area.
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Methodology
The security environment in which this research took place largely deter mined the methodology utilized in this study. We were severely constrained by government secrecy surrounding the nature of the programs under review, and of border operations in general. We had originally planned to utilize methodology similar to that employed in earlier research projects that involved the use of survey questionnaires, (6) but once in the field we quickly realized that this would not be possible. As a result, we employed a mixed-method, case-study approach.
A case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident. (7) Case-study methodology has multiple strengths, such as the ability to trace changes over time and the ability to deal with a full range of evidence, including documentation, interviews, observations, artifacts, and quantitative data analysis, (8) all of which were utilized in this project. Thus, in evaluating the impact of the new security measures on free trade in the western borderland, we used a two-step approach.
First, we used data from a variety of accepted and reliable governmental sources (such as Statistics Canada, the Canadian Border Services Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics) to better understand the current situation concerning trade and cross-border traffic along the Canada-U.S. border. These data sets also allowed us to study patterns over time (both prior to the implementation of the new security measures and after their development and implementation). Once the national situation was sketched out, we examined the regional situation and compared it to the national. The data proved invaluable in identifying and understanding the basic trends occurring in the borderland region.
Second, once the national data sets had been collected and analyzed, we began field work within the region, conducting on-site observations and interviews with border personnel, local government representatives, and area companies and business organizations in order to obtain their view on what was occurring along the border and the impact of the various security programs on trade and travelers. While we were successful in conducting a series of in-depth interviews with a variety of interested parties, most of the people we spoke with insisted on talking with us "off the record.'' However, a variety of concurrent evidence--including reports, published data, research literature, and field observation, as well as the interviews--strengthens this methodology, and allows for comparison not only across the range of data, but also with relevant theoretical concepts and other research findings, thus ensuring the study's validity.
Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of the methodology utilized for this project is that it was comparative. A previous held project in 1996 provided the baseline for all the data collection. (9) In both projects, the entire length of the trans Rocky Mountain border was driven, observed, and extensively photographed, including not just the ports themselves but also nearby border communities. In both instances, we talked to not only border personnel, but merchants, municipal officials, law enforcement officers, representatives of transportation companies, and others.
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Bi-national Policy Environment Prior to 9/11
The primary purpose of the FTA and NAFTA was to foster trade and investment between and among Canada, the United States, and Mexico through the elimination of both tariff and non-tariff barriers. The two treaties have certainly been successful for the northernmost neighbors--the only two included in this study. The total amount of trade, whether measured in terms of volume or value, between Canada and...
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