I wanted EVERYONE to be able to see just what Bush has done to us. This is from the PDF files which has it in all 3 languages. English, Spanish and French. This is the English version ONLY of those files.
Get mad enough as you read it to start writing letters to your congressmen when you're finished. THIS IS FOR OUR COUNTRY.


1
Security
and Prosperity
Partnership
of North America
Report to Leaders
June, 2005
On March 23, 2005, you announced the
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North
America. At that time, you instructed Ministers
to create an architecture which would further
enhance the security of North America while at
the same time promote the economic well-being
of our citizens and position North America to
face and meet future challenges. This effort
builds on the excellent, long-standing relations
among our three countries. The response to your
request is attached.
In carrying out your instructions, we established
working groups under both agendas of the
Partnership - Security and Prosperity. We held
roundtables with stakeholders, meetings with
business groups and briefing sessions with
legislatures, as well as with other relevant
political jurisdictions. The result is a detailed
series of actions and recommendations
designed to increase the competitiveness of
North America and the security of our
people. While the Security and Prosperity
agendas were developed by separate
teams, we recognize that our economic
well-being and our security are not two
separate and distinct issues.
2
In that spirit, we have worked
together to ensure that the
appropriate linkages are made
between security and prosperity
initiatives.
Upon your review and approval, we will
once again meet with stakeholders and
work with them to implement the
workplans that we have developed. We will
also encourage them to continue to provide
us with new ideas and proposals which will
help shape our forward agenda and our vision
for North America.
To make North America secure for the future, we
need integrated, coordinated and seamless
measures in place at, within, and beyond our
borders to provide our people and our
infrastructure with the highest possible common
level of protection from terrorists and other
criminal elements, as well as from the common
threats of nature.
To make North America prosperous for the
future, we need to improve the efficiency of the
movement of people, goods and services
crossing our borders. We must remove barriers
to trade, investment, research and education.
We must protect our environment and
promote the health and safety of our people.
Increased economic integration and security
cooperation will further a unique and strong
North American relationship - a
relationship that meets your stated goals
while preserving our political and cultural
identities.
3
We recognize that this Partnership is
designed to be a dynamic, permanent
process and that the attached workplans
are but a first step. We know that after
today, the real work begins. We will now
need to transform the ideas into reality and
the initiatives into prosperity and security.
The success of our efforts will be defined less
by the contents of the workplans than by the
actual implementation of initiatives and
strategies that will make North America more
prosperous and more secure. We will report back
to you semi-annually, highlighting progress on
implementing our commitments and making
recommendations for further initiatives to be
pursued under the Security and Prosperity
Partnership.
The report is presented in three separate sections.
The first outlines several initiatives which were
concluded during the preparation of this report.
They represent an immediate benefit from this
process. The second section outlines major
themes and initiatives which focus on issues or
situations which, when resolved, will provide
major contributions to the economic and
security integrity of the region. Finally, the last
section is an annex which provides a
description of all the initiatives that will be
undertaken by the working groups,
including a description of the project,
milestones and completion dates.
4 (picture of Bush, Fox and Martin)
5
Much has been accomplished in
the preparation of this report. We
want to commend the work of
each of the working group chairs
and working group participants for
their creativity and their ability to
work as a cohesive team with their
colleagues from the other countries. We
believe that if the dedication and hard
work shown to date are carried forward,
this Partnership can only succeed in
providing the security necessary to develop
a strong North American platform
highlighted by sustained economic growth
and job creation, and improved standards of
living for our citizens.
Michael Chertoff
Secretary of Homeland Security
Carlos Gutierrez
Secretary of Commerce
Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Initial
Results
In the 90 days since the launch of the
Security and Prosperity Partnership on
March 23, 2005, a number of collaborative
initiatives have been completed to advance
the prosperity and security agendas:
Prosperity
• Electronic Commerce. In June 2005, our three
countries signed a Framework of Common
Principles for Electronic Commerce that will
encourage the development of trans-border
online business in North America. The
Framework addresses the respective roles of
government and the private sector, promoting
transparency and security, and facilitating the
acceleration of ICT use by eliminating barriers
to e-commerce in cross-border transactions.
• Liberalization of Rules of Origin. We have
completed the implementation of
modifications of rules of origin, covering
goods such as household appliances, precious
metals, and various machinery and
equipment parts. Liberalizing rules of origin
reduces administrative burdens by making it
easier for exporters to qualify for duty-free
treatment under NAFTA. These changes
will affect US$20 billion of annual
trilateral trade.
• Consumer Products. Canada and the
United States signed a Memorandum
of Understanding to enhance and
strengthen the exchange of
6
information and cooperative activities on
public health and safety protection related
to the safety of consumer products, and
encourage compatibility of standards-related
measures to the greatest extent practicable.
Likewise, Mexico and the United States are
holding negotiations to reach agreement on a
similar Memorandum of Understanding.
• Textiles and Apparel Labelling. We have
reached an arrangement on the Use of Care
Symbols on Textile and Apparel Goods Labels
that will facilitate market access of textile and
apparel goods by the uniform acceptance of
harmonized care symbols in North America.
We plan to sign this arrangement in July.
• Temporary Work Entry. The three countries
have forwarded a trilateral document setting
out each country's domestic procedures to
modify NAFTA's temporary entry appendix
on professionals to the NAFTA Free Trade
Commission for approval. This will clarify
procedures in each country, thereby
providing a mechanism for more North
American professionals to be given
temporary entry.
7
• Migratory Species and
Biodiversity. We have signed a
Declaration of Intent for the
Conservation of North American
Birds and Their Habitat, a nonbinding
trilateral agreement to
cooperate in conserving the
continent’s bird species and the
landscapes upon which they depend
for survival.
• Harmonized Approach to BSE. A
harmonized North America approach to
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
was agreed by animal health officials in all
three countries in March 2005. This
approach provides continued protection of
human and animal health, while also
establishing a framework for safe
international trade opportunities for cattle
and beef products from Canada, Mexico and
the United States.
• Border Flow Analysis. Canada has completed
the pilot projects to test Weigh-In-Motion
(WIM) technology at Canada-U.S. border
crossings and will pursue broader
implementation. This initiative will take
advantage of state-of-the-art technology to
capture, analyze and exchange traffic flow
data without impeding border trade, thus
enhancing transportation flexibility and
efficiency.
•
8
• Airspace Capacity. The three
countries implemented Reduced
Vertical Separation Minimum
(RVSM) in January 2005. This
initiative increases North America
airspace capacity and allows aircraft
to fly more efficient routes, reducing
costs to air carriers and passengers.
• Harmonized Air Navigation Systems. Our
three countries recently released a North
American Aviation Trilateral Statement on a
Joint Strategy for the implementation of
performance-based navigation in North
America. This initiative, which includes both
Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required
Navigation Performance (RNP) in North
America, will harmonize our navigation
standards, simplify training and improve
efficiency for air carriers.
9
Security
• NTC-NRAC Exchange. The United
States and Canada have agreed to
exchange officers between their
two respective targeting facilities, the
National Targeting Center (NTC) in the
United States and the National Risk
Assessment Centre (NRAC) in Canada.
• Public Safety along the U.S.-Mexico
Border. The United States and Mexico
recently agreed to, over the course of three
weeks, identify and target key procedures
and guidelines to establish a standardized
Alien Smuggler Prosecutions Program along
the Southwest border, built upon previous U.S.
– Mexico efforts in the Guide Identification
Prosecution Program (GIPP), a collaborative
effort between CBP and Mexico’s Attorney
General Office-Procuraduria General de la
Republica (PGR) - to identify and prosecute local
guides and alien smugglers who endanger the
lives of migrants.
• Progress on Windsor-Detroit 25% Challenge.
We are working with bridge and tunnel
operators of the Detroit-Windsor gateway to
develop a number of innovations that will
reduce the transit times along the Detroit-
Windsor corridor. On June 9, 2005, agreements
were reached that are expected to increase
capacity on the U.S. side of the Blue Water
Bridge by 17 per cent. Improvements at the
Detroit-Windsor gateway are planned for
Summer/Fall 2005.
• Expanding Infrastructure at Nogales,
Arizona. We have completed the reviews
necessary to approve construction of
two new commercial lanes at Nogales,
Arizona. The formal documentation is
expected to be issued by the end of
June 2005. Construction is expected to begin
shortly thereafter.
10
• Science & Technology Cooperation. The
Canada-U.S. Public Security Technical Program
has completed a comprehensive Coordinated
Risk Assessment to form the basis for
identifying and prioritizing major collaborative
science and technology initiatives across all
homeland security mission areas. The final
report is expected to be completed in late
summer 2005.
• Nexus Marine Pilot. The United States and
Canada implemented the NEXUS-Marine pilot
in Windsor-Detroit for seasonal boaters in
April 2005.
• Preclearance Site. We have identified the site
for the second Canada-U.S. land preclearance
pilot: at the Thousand Islands Bridge. All
Canadian border operations would be relocated
from Lansdowne, Ontario to
Alexandria Bay, New York.
• WCO Framework. We have agreed to
trilaterally support, and to each
promote implementation, assuming a
favorable vote, of the proposed WCO
11
Framework of Standards to
Secure and Facilitate Global
Trade.
• Joint Initial Verification Team
Examinations. By the end of May
2005, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) -
Transport Canada Joint Initial
Verification Team (JIVT) had completed
94 joint verification exams, since the start
of the 2005 Seaway season. The Team
jointly examined vessels to ensure they
were in substantial compliance with the
International Ship and Port Facility Security
Code regulations before they were allowed to
enter the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great
Lakes.
12
• Port Security Exercises. Between May 9-11,
2005, the United States and Canada conducted
three port security exercises to evaluate joint
response capability to terrorist attacks along the
U.S. / Canadian border of the Great Lakes
between Sault Ste. Marie and Detroit.
13
Promoting
Growth,
Competitiveness
and Quality of Life
Key Themes
and Initiatives
On March 23, 2005, President Bush, President
Fox and Prime Minister Martin committed our
countries to enhancing North American
competitiveness and improving the quality of
life of our people. On that basis they tasked
Ministers and officials, in consultation with
stakeholders, to develop workplans that would
give effect to that fundamental goal.
Over the past 90 days, ten working groups have
been created to develop detailed workplans on
prosperity and quality of life, identifying
concrete, forward-looking strategies and
initiatives. These initiatives form a broad and
ambitious agenda of collaboration aimed at
transforming important sectors of our
economies and ensuring that our citizens
benefit from high standards of safety and
health, and joint stewardship of our
environment.
14
P P P
I.Making North America the
Best Place to do Business
The competitiveness of North American firms
depends on a number of factors influencing the
business environment. The three countries have
identified key drivers of competitiveness and
have agreed on the following priorities:
Enhancing and Streamlining
Regulatory Processes in North America
• We will develop a trilateral Regulatory
Cooperation Framework by 2007 to support
and enhance existing, as well as encourage
new cooperation among regulators, including
at the outset of the regulatory process.
• The framework will aim to strengthen
cooperation among regulators and
encourage the compatibility of regulations
and the reduction of redundant testing
and certification requirements, while
maintaining high standards of health
and safety.
15
Fake Free North America
• Protection of intellectual property
is key to sustaining an innovative
economy. We will seek to develop a
coordinated strategy by 2006, aimed
at combating counterfeiting and
piracy, and focusing on:
Enhancing detection and deterrence
of counterfeiting and piracy;
Expanding public awareness and
outreach efforts regarding trade in
pirated and counterfeit goods; and,
Developing measurements to assess
progress over time and to estimate the
magnitude of the problem.
Expanding Duty Free Treatment by
Liberalizing the Rules of Origin
• Ongoing liberalization of rules of origin will
help improve the competitiveness of our
industries by reducing transaction costs and
facilitating cross-border trade in goods.
Building on the work of our three countries in
implementing changes to rules of origin
agreed under the first round of negotiations,
we have agreed to a second round of
changes and commit to complete
negotiations on an ambitious third round
of changes by May 1, 2006. This will
expand duty free treatment through rules
of origin liberalization, covering at least
$30 billion in trilateral trade by 2007.
II. Sectoral
Collaboration
to Enhance
North American
Competitiveness
We are committed to continue working
to identify the factors affecting the
competitiveness of the North American
economy. To help Governments identify
these issues, we will build on the work of
existing organizations, which will provide
strategic advice on ways to strengthen the
North American economy in areas such as
improving the flow of people and goods, supply
chains and regulatory cooperation. While the
efforts will be private sector led, governments,
policy experts and other stakeholders will also
participate.
Many sectors of our economies are already well
integrated and provide valuable lessons for other
sectors of the North American economy. We
believe that we can learn from these industries
and work with them to ensure that they
continue to thrive in the global economy. In
that context, we will pursue a number of
sectoral initiatives, including:
Steel: A Strategic Partnership –
A Strategic Industry
• We will put in place a North American
Steel Strategy by 2006 that will promote
growth, competitiveness and prosperity.
The strategy will be developed and
implemented through the North
American Steel Trade Committee
(NASTC), which has been a leading
example of sectoral
cooperation among the three
governments and industry. The
NASTC will focus on:
Pursuing the elimination of
distortions adversely affecting
North American steel markets,
including through policy
coordination and other actions;
Reducing the costs and risks of North
American steel trade through proactive
measures to facilitate such trade, with
improved monitoring to enhance
understanding of the North American steel
market; and
Promoting steel industry competitiveness
and productivity through innovation and
market development.
Moving towards a Fully Integrated
Auto Sector
• We will also establish an Automotive
Partnership Council of North America that
will support the ongoing competitiveness of
the automotive and auto parts sector. The
Council will help identify the full spectrum
of issues that impact the industry,
ranging from regulation, innovation,
transportation infrastructure, and border
facilitation.
Creating a Sustainable Energy
Economy for North America
• Creating a sustainable energy economy for
North America is in the vital interest of all
three countries. Reliable, affordable energy is
critical to the prosperity and security of our
peoples. We are taking action to create a
policy environment that will promote the
sustainable supply and use of energy in North
America.
• To that end, we affirm our commitment in
pursuing joint cooperation in the areas of:
regulation, energy efficiency, natural gas
including liquefied natural gas (LNG), science
and technology, reliability of electricity
transmission grids, oil sands production,
nuclear energy, hydrocarbons and energy
information, statistics and projections.
• Recognizing the importance of natural gas
to North America's energy future, we are
announcing a trilateral gas initiative to
address a range of issues related to the
natural gas market in North America,
including: production, transportation,
transmission, distribution,
consumption, trade, interconnections
and LNG as well as projections for
the future. This initiative also
focuses on transparency of
regulations, laws and siting
processes in the three countries to
promote enhanced regional trade
and investment.
• The three countries have established a
regulators' expert group, recognizing
that appropriate coordination of their
efforts will promote the public interest
through increased efficiency, expedited
and coordinated action on significant
energy infrastructure projects, and cost
savings to both the public and regulated
entities. All agree that the regulatory efforts
of the Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB),
the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) and Mexico’s Comision Reguladora de
Energia (CRE) will benefit from increased
communication and cooperation concerning
the timing and other procedural aspects of
related matters that may be pending before all
three agencies.
• Canada and the United States have established
a working group on electricity reliability
which will coordinate their guidance to the
North American Electricity Reliability Council
(NERC) and regional councils, concerning an
Electricity Reliability Organization (ERO) that
can operate on an international basis.
Mexico will take initial steps to join this
Working Group, with the goal of a
coordinated trilateral North American
reliability effort.
• The three countries will strengthen
technical and scientific cooperation in
the field of energy that includes
initiatives to promote cleaner and
more efficient energy resources and
technologies.
Air Transportation:
Expanding our Horizons
• We will put in place a plan by 2007 aimed at
improving the safety and efficiency of North
American air navigation system and expanding
air transportation opportunities. Our aim is
to reach agreement on new opportunities for
commercial aviation, have a compatible
regulatory regime to facilitate business aviation
among all three countries, increase air capacity
and enhance aviation safety and air navigation.
• The United States and Mexico will work toward
the development of a Bilateral Aviation Safety
Agreement. The United States will support
Mexico’s efforts to strengthen its oversight of
Mexican companies that produce parts and
components for the aerospace industry. With
this purpose, and at the demonstration of
sufficient production surveillance, Mexico
and the United States will sign a
Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) for
production oversight support. This MOC
would be the first concrete step toward
the eventual conclusion of a Bilateral
Aviation Safety Agreement, under which
certain Mexican aeronautical parts and
products would be eligible for export to
the United States, which will benefit
Mexican industry.
Safer, Faster and More
Efficient Border Crossings
• New, enhanced mechanisms will
support binational border
planning, information sharing and
communications through the U.S.-
Canada Transportation Border
Working Group and the U.S.-Mexico
Joint Working Committee on
Transportation Planning. The United
States and Canada will complete a border
infrastructure compendium and develop
an implementation plan for priority
infrastructure investments at key land
border ports of entry, improve border trade
and traffic information, improve the cross-border
movement of people and goods,
enhance use of supporting technologies and
improve border transportation planning and
coordination. Methods for detecting
bottlenecks on the U.S.-Mexico border will be
developed and low cost/high impact projects
identified in bottleneck studies will be
constructed or implemented. New, secure
SENTRI travel lanes will be constructed by
2006 and the United States and Mexico will
work toward implementation of a secure
cross-border commuter service between El
Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
Free and Secure Electronic Commerce
• In June 2005, our three countries signed a
Framework of Common Principles for
Electronic Commerce. The Framework
will promote the growth of online
business and streamline transborder
electronic commerce procedures
while building consumer confidence
through privacy protection, and a
shared approach to cross-border
recognition of electronic
signatures and documents. We
will begin to work together
immediately to implement the
Framework.
Beyond these sectoral initiatives, we
propose to pay particular attention to the
important role that small- and medium sized
enterprises (SME) play in driving
innovation, job creation and economic
growth. We will consult with SME
stakeholders on ways of addressing their
particular challenges with respect to
streamlining the movement of low-risk traffic
across our borders, regulatory cooperation and
the reduction of paper burden.
Enabling Our People
• To better prepare our people to deal with the
challenges of the knowledge-based economy,
the three countries will, by mid 2006, better
coordinate and enhance the current efforts
under the Partnership for Prosperity and the

Canada-Mexico Partnership.
The aim of this initiative is to
empower our people through
enhanced higher education,
academic exchanges, and common
research and development initiatives,
so as to better prepare our human
capital for the future.
III.Making North America
the Best Place to Live
To make North America the best place to live,
our countries will implement a series of
measures that will enhance the quality of our
environment, ensure high standards of safety
for our food supply and promote and protect
the health of our citizens. Specifically, we are
committing to pursue the following:
Clean Air,Clean Water: Protecting
People and our Environment
• Our three countries will work together to:
Increase domestic supply of low-sulphur
fuels in Mexico, through significant
investment by Mexico, supported by
technical assistance and capacity-building
from the U.S. and Canada.
Address ship-source air pollution
through coordinated data gathering,
marine emissions inventory
development, and air quality modeling.
Launch the joint Canada-U.S.
review of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement.
Promote ballast water
management strategies in
North America, demonstrating
our collective commitment to
combat invasive alien species.
Seek to conclude a transboundary
environmental impact assessment
cooperation agreement for proposed
projects by June 2007.
Access to a Safe and Reliable
Food Supply
• We will establish or identify a North American
food safety coordinating mechanism to
facilitate the:
Cooperative design and development of
common standards, where appropriate;
Review of existing food safety standards
to identify and assess, on a scientific basis,
differences with a view to removing, where
warranted and appropriate, those
identified differences; and,
Sharing of information on food safety
matters to protect and advance public
health in North America.
• We will cooperate on a North
American basis to speed up
identification, management and
recovery from food safety, animal
and plant disease hazards.
25
Healthier North America
• We will work on many fronts to
ensure a coordinated and
strategic approach to address
common public health issues and
concerns. We will work together to
improve mechanisms to share
information, build on each others’
knowledge and expertise, and improve
capacity and cooperation by:
Putting in place protocols for mutual
assistance and support to prevent,
protect against, and respond to cross-border
public health emergencies. These
protocols will facilitate the exchange of
liaison officers between national public
health agencies, and the coordination and
exchange of personnel and medical supplies.
Developing a regional plan to combat
influenza, through the Global Health
Security Initiative, that will facilitate the
sharing of information (e.g., vaccine clinical
trials) and the coordination of approaches to
common regional issues related to
preparedness (e.g., border issues).
Building upon existing laboratory-based
surveillance initiatives in North America by
finalizing the Canada-US Memorandum of
Understanding related to PulseNet,
examining methods to improve the
monitoring of pathogens and establishing
an infectious disease early warning system.
Establishing a North American
mechanism to facilitate information sharing
on the safety of
pharmaceutical products to protect
and advance public health in North
America.
Securing
North America
from External
and Internal
Threats and further
Streamlining the
Secure Movement
of Low-Risk Traffic
across our Shared
Borders
Key Themes and
Initiatives
President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister
Martin committed our countries on March 23,
2005, to:
“Establish a common approach to security
to protect North America from external
threats, prevent and respond to threats
within North America, and to further
streamline the secure and efficient
movement of legitimate, low risk traffic
across our shared border.”
Our countries have made major advances
since 9/11 in developing improved
security policies, systems and processes.
With our improved and expanding
relations at all levels, we now
have opportunities to further our
common security goals in an
evolving and strengthened North
American relationship. Over the past
three months, experts from the United
States, Mexico and Canada have
developed specific plans and objectives
to meet these goals. These North
American plans and objectives, once fully
implemented by the bilateral and trilateral
working groups now engaged, will bring
transformational improvements to our
common security goals, specifically:
I. Securing North America
from External Threats
We have established plans to develop and
implement comparable processes which produce
consistent outcomes for screening individuals
prior to departure and at first point of entry into
North America, as well as to develop and
implement compatible screening methods for
goods and cargo prior to departure from a
foreign port and at the first point of entry to
North America. These strategies include
commitments on:
• Biometrics and secure documentation vision.
We will work to develop systems that
prevent high-risk travelers from coming
to North America, and facilitate
legitimate travel to and within North
America, by enhancing our ability to
verify traveler identities.
29
We will test technology
and make recommendations,
over the next 12 months, to
enhance the use of biometrics
in screening travelers destined to
North America with a view to
developing compatible biometric
border and immigration systems.
We will develop standards for lower cost
secure proof of status and
nationality documents to facilitate
cross-border travel, and work to achieve
optimal production before January 1,
2008.
We will devise a single, integrated global
enrollment program for North American
trusted traveler programs within the next
36 months.
• Real-time information sharing. We will ensure
real-time information sharing on high-risk
individuals and cargo, and thereby better
enable our Governments to prevent them from
entering North America, including by:
Negotiating terrorist screening
information agreements and examining
other appropriate linkages between
Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Completing the negotiation of the
Canada-U.S. visa information sharing
agreement within 18 months.
Finalizing protocols to share
information on high-risk cargo.
• Compatible screening
standards. We will implement
compatible border security
measures so that we can better
screen out high risk individuals and
cargo before they depart for North
America, including by:
Developing a reciprocal mechanism
within 12 months to inform visa-free
travel program country reviews.
Developing benchmarks on procedures
and policies for visitor visa processing,
including security screening, visa validity,
length of stay, quality control measures
and access to appeal or review, within 9
months.
Developing compatible criteria for the
posting of lookouts of suspected terrorists
and criminals within 9 months.
• Export controls for radioactive sources.
Within 18 months, we will implement
import/export control programs, consistent
with newly established international
standards, to minimize the risk of illicit
movements of radioactive materials that
could be used for malicious purposes such as
“dirty bombs”.
• Bioprotection. Within 24 months, we will
develop a coordinated strategy to identify
and manage threats to our food supply and
agricultural sectors, consistent with each
country’s legislation, and share
approaches of determining risk from
imported foods.
31
II. Preventing and
Responding to Threats
within North America
In North America, we have established
plans for equivalent approaches to
strengthen aviation security, to enhance
maritime transportation and port security, to
combat transnational threats to the United
States, Canada, and Mexico, including
terrorism, organized crime, illegal drugs,
migrant and contraband smuggling and
trafficking, to enhance partnerships on
intelligence and information sharing, and to
develop and implement a common approach to
critical infrastructure protection, and response
to cross-border terrorist incidents and, as
applicable, natural disasters. These strategies
include commitments on:
• Preparedness. We will implement a
comprehensive North American program to
ensure that our Governments are prepared
to respond to large-scale incidents,
including by:
Developing protocols within 12
months to manage incidents that
impact border operations.
• Critical Infrastructure
Protection. We will complete
coordinated vulnerability
assessments to identify our
critical cross-border infrastructure
and seek to enhance its protection.
• Maritime and Aviation Security. We
will develop and implement a
comprehensive North American
approach to strengthening maritime and
aviation security, including by:
Developing comparable standards and
procedures for the screening of aviation
passengers, hold baggage and cargo and by
working together on passenger assessment
programs that reflect each nation’s
legislation.
Developing and implementing plans to
make port and vessel security regimes more
compatible to secure our contiguous waters,
and to enhance coordination of regional
operations to secure our maritime borders.
• U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement against
Smuggling Organizations. We will form
intelligence sharing task force pilots to
target cross border criminal activity, in
particular criminal gang and trafficking
organization networks, and thereby reduce
violence along the border.
34
• U.S.-Canada Great Lakes/
St. Lawrence Seaway
Enforcement Program. We will
develop coordinated maritime law
enforcement programs on the St.
Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes systems
with a specific interest in interdicting
smugglers/traffickers and ensuring
border security.
III. Further Streamlining the
Secure Movement of Low-Risk
Traffic across our Shared
Borders
We have also developed a border facilitation
plan to build capacity and improve the flow of
legitimate trade and travel at ports of entry
within North America. This strategy includes
commitments on:
Working with local stakeholders along the
border to make our existing infrastructure
more efficient, for example by considering
the expansion of the Detroit/Windsor 25%
challenge to other land border crossings
where applicable.
Evaluating and making recommendations
for expanding the Vancouver NEXUS-Air
pilot to other U.S. air preclearance sites
in Canada and examining feasibility of
expanding the eligibility for NEXUSAir
to include Mexican nationals,
within six months.
Completing negotiations
of a formal Canada-U.S. land
pre-clearance agreement
within 6 months, contingent on
legislative amendments.
Considering programs to
substantially reduce transit times
and border congestion like
partnering with state, provincial and
local governments and the private
sector to establish “low-risk” port of
entry pilots for the exclusive use of those
enrolled in our trusted trade and traveler
programs.
Assessing feasibility of further streamlining
FAST processing at ports of entry.
Expanding the SENTRI program to priority
ports of entry within 12 months.