'Report card' of Beyond the Border released
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a progress report on Feb. 13, 2013 identifying specific items of the Beyond the Border Action Plan which have been implemented to date. To view it, click here.
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Beyond the Border Progress to Date and Plans for 2013
On February 4, 2013 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC, held an update regarding the status of the Beyonder the Border Action Plan and the Regulatory Cooperation Council. Click here to download a PowerPoint from this event on the progress of the BtB and the RCC.
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'Keep pursuing Canadian border reforms' by Don Alper, Professor and Director of the Border Policy Research Institute, WWU
Guest Opinion, Puget Sound Business Journal
A report card was issued in December on the yearlong progress of the new Beyond the Border Action Plan, announced by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama on Dec. 7, 2011. The plan was designed to streamline border crossings for people and freight by moving clearance and inspection operations away from the border. Has progress been made, and what does it mean for our state and region? (Read more)...
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U.S. budget woes could hit Beyond the Border project
The dreaded S-word - sequestration - loomed over a Canada-U.S. conference on Beyond the Border initiatives Monday as an American official acknowledged U.S. budget woes were slowing progress on a host of fronts. "It is fair to say we are facing some very difficult budget constraints," Ana Hinojosa, a director at U.S. Customs and Border Protection and a member of the Beyond the Border Initiative, told the meeting. (Read more)...
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Senators call for less tariffs to help close the Canada-U.S. price gap
Macleans
The federal government needs to launch a comprehensive review of its tariff policy to help bridge a yawning price gap between Canadian and American retail prices, a Senate committee said Wednesday. After studying the issue for eight months, the Senate finance committee said tariffs on consumer imports are not the only, or even major, reason for the price differential, but they are a significant factor and one that government can do something about. (Read more).....
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'CSIS Hemisphere Focus: Recommendations for a New Administration: Weed and Lead with Canada'
by Christopher Sands
Canada is the United States' largest economic partner, with more than $1 million in trade per minute crossing the border every year. Canada is a security partner and close ally whose young men and women have marched alongside ours from the battlefields of Korea to Afghanistan. (Read more)...
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Wilson Center - Canada Institute: Changing Energy: Canada and the United States
by David Biette and Andrew Finn
Americans are generally surprised to learn that more of the energy that the United States imports comes from Canada than from any other country. Really, you say? The United States imports 2.7 million barrels of crude oil and refined products from Canada every day, representing 24 percent of total petroleum imports-about twice what is imported from Saudi Arabia.
Approximately 20 percent of the uranium used in U.S. nuclear power plants comes from Canada. And of the natural gas that the United States does import, 90 percent of it comes from Canada, which is 13 percent of U.S. natural gas consumption. The two countries' electricity grid is deeply integrated, with all border states connected to a Canadian province. Hydroelectric power from Quebec, British Columbia, and Manitoba is already used to power well over a million homes in the United States. (Read more)...
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