Much has been made about the deterioration of U.S.-Canada relations over the past two years and the impact that could have on our access to the world's largest market. But as Eric Couture, the top U.S. trade specialist assigned to Canada, tried to impress upon shippers and carriers at a recent Supply Chain & Logistics Canada dinner, it's better to ignore the political rhetoric and focus instead on what has really been going on at the ground level since 9/11.According to Couture, since 9/11, information sharing and coordination of security between our two countries has increased. "Relations are getting better even though all the political rhetoric makes it sound as if it has gotten worse," he said.
A valid point and one we should keep in mind for proper perspective when reading the latest media reports (ours included) about anything involving trade relations.
An accurate assessment of the border situation, however, requires looking not only at the progress that has been made to date but also at the obstacles that stand in the way. And it's impossible to escape the impression that the main obstacles to a secure and efficient border are the very government agencies entrusted with creating it.
Over-lapping rules from competing U.S. government agencies are confusing shippers and carriers, increasing frustration and costs, and likely reducing participation, and compliance.
Consider the pre-notification regulations recently announced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for shipments entering the U.S. As if the wording of the legislation isn't complicated enough - "it's such a complicated process I'm not sure everybody understands the details," comments Phil Cahley, executive director of the Canadian Courier and Messenger Association about the FDA regulations - shippers and carriers must also contend with the fact the two agencies have come up with two different pre-notification schedules.
And yet the logistical inefficiency this creates may be for naught, according to a nugget dropped by Couture at the SCL meeting. Couture said that when CBP completes training of its staff on FDA inspection procedures, likely this fall, and takes over that role at the border it will switch to its own, more lenient, pre-notification process. So why put shippers and carriers through a spring and summer of conflicting regulation in the first place?
There are also jurisdictional issues reducing the effectiveness of CBP's much-publicized Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program. While passage through the FAST booth may indeed be expedient, getting there may prove extremely slow due to congestion issues at the border crossing, and there's little CBP can do about it. As Couture readily acknowledges, "we control the people at the border, not the infrastructure at the border."
What is needed is a government body with overarching authority for border entry and security; a body that could have stepped in when the FDA and CBP announced different pre-notification times and which would have the authority to resolve the infrastructure-related issues that could choke the FAST program.
Supposedly that's the role the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is supposed to play. But so far U.S. authorities have not done a good job of explaining the exact relationship between the TSA and CBP, the traditional guardian of U.S. ports and border crossings.
And TSA's initial attempts at rule making have been muddled. Consider its late November announcement that it would allow each U.S. state to implement its own process for checking the background of drivers licensed to carry hazardous materials. As trucking executives quickly pointed out that could mean 51 distinct processes for clearing the required background checks (one for each state and the District of Columbia) taking various lengths of time with different requirements for where and how the driver can complete the process. In other words a complete, and bureaucratically created, nightmare. And particularly distressing when you consider the report from yet another department, the U.S. General Accounting Office, that its investigators testing the permeability of the current system were able to counterfeit state driver licenses and birth certificates with fictitious names and use them to enter the U.S. from Canada.
Yes, progress has been made in securing the U.S. border, as Couture points out. But it remains a daunting task and it's a shame that overlapping legislation by competing government agencies is standing in the way of shippers and carriers willing to do their part.
WORTH REPEATING
"Our primary goal now is to combat terrorism. Whenever you are dealing with an American Customs agent, remember that."
- Eric Couture, Customs Attaché Office, Department of Homeland Security