On Friday, President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed an historic statement - the "Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness" - that sets forth how our two countries will manage our shared homeland and economic security in the 21st century.
The United States and Canada not only share the longest geographic border in the world, but also the largest and most integrated economic partnership, with over $1 trillion in annual trade and foreign direct investment between our countries. In fact, Canada is a larger market for U.S. goods than all 27 countries of the European Union combined. Both sides recognize that, to sustain this productive economic relationship, we must work together to protect our borders and shared critical infrastructure from terrorism and transnational crime, such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.
In today's world, stopping these threats requires collaboration that extends beyond mere physical borders. The historic ease of travel between the United States and Canada, the fact that 21st century threats to both nations can originate anywhere in our global aviation and supply chain systems, and the reality that both of our countries face threats of homegrown terrorism require us to be more proactive and innovative in our security efforts.
Given this globalized and rapidly evolving environment, the "Shared Vision" aims to grow our economies, create jobs and expedite legitimate travel and trade by expanding our joint efforts to prevent, deter and disrupt evolving terrorist threats at the earliest point possible and to deal collaboratively with other crimes or natural disasters that affect both countries.
To do so, we will strengthen intelligence and information sharing efforts, and continue joint threat assessments. We will improve our ability to verify the identities of travelers passing through and between our countries to ensure our enforcement agencies have timely information. By sharing traveler information - including biometrics - in real time, we can identify potential security risks sooner, detect and counter the use of fraudulent documents, and improve joint screening and threat notifications.
These efforts not only strengthen security, they also facilitate lawful trade and travel between our countries - as they allow law enforcement to focus its resources on people and goods who pose the highest risk. In fact, this shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness makes our borders both more secure and more traveler- and business-friendly.
Specifically, we will build on the successful elements of existing programs like NEXUS and Free and Secure Trade (FAST), which expedite the processing of preapproved, recurrently vetted, low-risk travelers and shippers. We will also more closely coordinate investments in infrastructure and technology at our ports of entry, including automating processes where possible.
Further, we will continue to identify areas where it makes sense to develop joint facilities, programs and operations to improve coordination. This includes the creation of new bi-national port of entry committees to coordinate port operations and management, enhanced national efforts to coordinate planning and funding on both sides of the border, and the expansion of successful joint law enforcement initiatives that have proven effective in combating cross border crime and illegal immigration.
Finally, because many communities that span the border benefit from shared critical and cyber infrastructure, we will expand collaboration to prevent, respond to, and recover from attacks and disruptions to shared assets and key resources.
To develop and implement the nuts and bolts of this shared vision, President Obama and Prime Minister Harper have established a Beyond the Border Working Group, comprised of representatives from relevant U.S. and Canadian departments, that will report to them in the coming months with a joint plan of action to realize the goals of the vision, followed by an annual report on our progress.
The United States and Canada have a longstanding commitment to shared security. But nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks, it is time to take the next step to more effectively prepare for, deter and disrupt the evolving threats we face. Doing so not only will make both nations more safe and secure, it will also make the world's closest partners more competitive in the global economy for decades to come.
Source: http://helenair.com
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