PRINT
EMAIL
COMMENT
DEL.ICIO.US
DIGG
OUR PREMIUM CONTENT
The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter
The Kiplinger California Letter
Kiplinger's Biofuels Market Alert
Kiplinger's Retirement Report
SUBSCRIBER HELP
CURRENT LETTER
U.S. Agriculture
Feeding the Economy
PREVIOUS ISSUES
A security crackdown on the U.S. northern border? Not a chance. Despite an outcry in Congress following Canada's recent breakup of an apparent terrorist ring, the U.S. will take only modest steps to tighten checkpoints and identification procedures for individuals traveling from Canada to the U.S. More-drastic moves would disrupt business and tourist traffic and, in any case, almost certainly prove futile.
The potential cost of much tighter controls at the border is simply too great: It would jeopardize more than $400 billion a year in trade. Trucks loaded with oil, lumber, grain and other products from Canada enter the U.S. at the rate of about one every 30 seconds. In addition, residents of both countries make countless short trips over the border to shop, visit restaurants or seek other entertainment. Canadians, in particular, are increasingly drawn to the U.S. by the favorable exchange rate. Canadian tourists flock to Florida, California, Arizona and the Eastern Seaboard.
In fact, worries about the impact of tighter security on commerce and on the economies of border towns are likely to delay one measure intended to help the feds better track cross-border traffic. A U.S. plan to require border crossers to have a tamperproof passport or North American "travel card" probably won't go into effect until at least 2009, after an outcry from businesses, members of Congress and northern border states. They cite technical hurdles, the $97 cost of a passport and the potential for long lines at the 140 border checkpoints as reasons to stall.
Still, security has been stepped up since 9/11, and it now includes the use of satellites and other technology to monitor much of the unguarded expanse along the 4000-mile U.S.-Canada border. Long considered the easiest gateway to the U.S., the long stretches of wilderness along the divide between the U.S. and its northern neighbor pose a particular threat.
Even before Canada's arrest of 17 people allegedly involved in a bombing plot, U.S. officials were mulling how to better guard against terrorists slipping into the country from up north. Odds are, however, that efforts will focus on stepping up human intelligence and international cooperation, with shared computerized watch lists, a foreign terrorist task force, improved screening of travelers before they reach U.S. points of entry and disruption of terrorists' financial networks.
Meanwhile, the Mexican border will continue to receive greater scrutiny because of the continuing flood of illegal immigration, which simply is not a major concern in the north. The National Guard began helping out at the southern border just this week, and more security fences will be erected.
For weekly updates on topics to improve your business decisionmaking, click here.
E-Mail Article
Print Article
Reprint Article
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
