ECONOMIC RECOVERY: INTERNATIONAL Border Re-opening Strategy

For Canada, expanding our trade relationships in order to expand our economy is still the best way to get ourselves out of debt. Our main customer will always be the United States, which is still the world’s biggest market. With our updated trade agreement, the Canada-usaMexico Agreement (CUSMA), that came into effect on July 1, we need to seize this opportunity.

It starts with reopening the Canada-us border. We applied risk-management principles after 9/11 to provide secure, but efficient, cross-border passage. We must do so again in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recent border shutdown extension, now in effect until July 21, and maybe longer, will mark four months of closing to all but essential traffic between Canada and the

US. This deprives us of trade and investment opportunities. Health considerations must be made, but surely there is room to consider regional openings.

Ours is a long border. The stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific is almost 9,000 kilometres (further than the journey from London to Beijing), while the line dividing Alaska and Yukon is another 2,200 km (equivalent to the distance from Moscow to Berlin). The European Union – which is half the size of Canada – has created travel bubbles. We should do the same.

In managing this pandemic, each province has responded to its own circumstances. Our island provinces and Quebec temporarily closed their borders. The North remains shut. Reopening began in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In Ontario, restrictions were first relaxed outside of Toronto. One-size-fits-all has not applied within Canada. Let’s demonstrate the same flexibility in reopening to tourism and commerce. Why not implement an approach that allows the Premiers, in consultation with the Federal Government, to determine access for outsiders, starting with travellers from the US? Start with pilot projects at our smaller crossings, such as Sweetgrass,

Mont., and Coutts, Alta. Let’s move forward with a proposed project by the Future Borders Coalition, wherein travellers from the US could be precleared for entry at Vancouver International Airport. Canada can become a global leader in safe reopening, but it will require innovation and risk management. Alaska has demonstrated leadership in this regard, with clear requirements for passage in and out of the state: All entrants must have a COVID-19 test administered upon entry or show proof of a recent negative test.

Further, the pandemic is accelerating consumer use of digital trade. Fortunately, the CUSMA chapter on digital trade is best in class, as it allows for the creation of a digital portal for trade information. As with other parts of the agreement, there is provision for stakeholders to keep the CUSMA evergreen and tackle challenges such as the technical barriers to trade. Industry and industry associations were energized by the CUSMA. They need to stay vigilant and keep governments focused on expediting cross-border trade.

A key challenge as we work our way out of the pandemic will be to digitize our current paper-dependent supply chains. We must make our North American trade platforms more efficient by increasing our reliance on digital systems and technology. Digitization is the infrastructure of the future.

The US buys three-quarters of Canada’s exports and remains our biggest investor. As the US decouples from China and supply chains are rerouted to North America, there are opportunities for Canada. It starts with the regional, risk-based reopening of our borders, followed by taking a leadership role in digitized trade.

Composed by Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat, Colin Robertson is Vice President and Fellow at the Canadian Global

Affairs Institute and hosts its regular Global Exchange podcast. He is an Executive Fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton