Janet Napolitano has a message for Canadians: It's a border. Get used to it.
The new Homeland Security Secretary had only stern comments this week about the state and future of the Canada-U.S. border at a symposium hosted by the Brookings Institution.
Her goal seemed to be to throw a bucket of reality on anyone who hoped that the arrival of Barack Obama's new administration would herald a loosening of new restrictions on cross-border traffic.
The days when Canadians and Americans moved back and forth across the border -- "it's as though there's not a border at all," as she put it -- are over.
"It's a real border, and we need to address it as a real border," Napolitano said, calling on both Americans and Canadians to accept this "change of culture."
That culture changes most emphatically June 1, when the United States will require anyone entering from Canada to produce a passport or its equivalent.
Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, whose district encompasses Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, believes she knows what will happen that day.
"There will be pure chaos," she predicted. "Lines will lengthen, people will be denied entry, tourism and business will suffer. And with the addition of the Olympics it's going to be even more so."
Canadian tourist industry officials are predicting major declines in cross-border traffic, because only about a quarter of Americans carry passports.
Slaughter said she plans to introduce legislation to delay implementation of the passport requirement for one year. Although she has been successful in persuading her congressional colleagues to grant a previous extension, those who know the issue said there was virtually no chance of a further delay.
These days, the Canada-U.S. border faces worsening challenges, as a plethora of new charges, regulations and red tape, mostly imposed by Americans in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, amount to the equivalent of a new tariff on goods and services.
This tariff-in-all-but-name leaves manufacturers increasingly concerned that the integrated Canada-U.S. economy could begin to rupture. Some are already looking at contingency plans, such as additional warehouses or alternative suppliers, in case of disruption in delivery cycles.
Campbell Soup, for example, is moving "from just-in-time to just-in-case," warned Kelly Johnston, an executive with the company.
Canadian politicians, and industry leaders on both sides of the border, hoped that the arrival of a new, Democratic administration would lessen the emphasis on security that Napolitano's predecessor, Michael Chertoff, placed on border relations.
It was on his watch that Congress passed the passport requirements, and it was Chertoff who vetoed a planned initiative that would have made it easier for goods to pre-clear customs, easing lineups.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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