Trump likely to tighten U.S.-Canada border
Bi-national efforts to make it easier for travellers to cross the United States-Canada border by train, ferries and cruise ships may be in jeopardy under the U.S. presidency of Donald J. Trump.
Legislators and businesses in the Pacific Northwest, including B.C., have been working hard to get a pre-clearance program passed by both U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament. The measure would allow travellers to be screened in each other’s country before departure.
A pre-clearance program is already in place at Vancouver International Airport for travellers to U.S. destinations, and limited preinspection, but not pre-clearance is done at Vancouver’s cruise terminal for Alaska-bound ships.
However, with Trump promising greater scrutiny of travellers coming into the U.S., particularly from Mexico and Muslim countries, there are concerns travel and tourism may be in for a rough ride with broader pre-clearance programs.
“A lot of Trump’s constituency view Canada as a haven for undesirables and ‘bad hombres’ as he calls them, since Canada takes in more refugees than the U.S.,” said Keith Head, a professor specializing in international trade at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
“I am kind of anticipating at some point we are going to see some sort of thickening of the border. So actions like the pre-clearance program, which would be seen as a thinning the border, are unlikely to be viewed by his administration as helpful.”
Matt Morrison, the CEO of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, an organization comprised of provincial and state legislators and businesses, said his group is assessing how the incoming Trump government will affect many of the cross-border issues his group deals with. They are meeting in Boise, Idaho this weekend.
One of the major areas of concern is the Beyond The Border Action Plan, a shared approach to border security announced in 2011 by President Barack Obama and then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Under the agreement, both countries work to “address threats within, at, and away from our borders, while expediting lawful trade and travel.”
In 2015 the two governments signed an agreement to bring in pre-clearance, pending passage of legislation in both countries.
Morrison is hopeful the program will still go ahead before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
“We’re hoping that in the lameduck session of Congress that the pre-clearance authorization goes forward and a companion bill in Ottawa will happen in the spring.”
Morrison said pre-clearance will be a significant benefit to the PNWER’s $55 billion travel and tourism sector, much of it oriented along the Pacific Rim.
The organization has representation from the state governments of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington, and provincial and territorial governments of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
A PNWER position paper in 2015 pointed out that companies like Vancouver’s Rocky Mountaineer tourist train, with service between Seattle and Vancouver, and Amtrak’s Cascades route, would significantly benefit by reducing waiting times and elimination of stops at the border.
It said other significant beneficiaries would be the Washington State Ferries, Victoria Clipper and Black Ball routes to Vancouver Island, Vancouver and Victoria cruise ports, and commercial float plane service between B.C. and Washington.