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Joint Statement on Progress Made in the Smart Border Action Plan - March 8, 2002

March 8, 2002

Immediate

John Manley, Canada's Deputy Prime Minister, and Governor Tom Ridge, Director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, met on Friday, March 8, 2002 to continue discussions on the 30-point Smart Border Action Plan outlined in the Smart Border Declaration. They issued the following joint statement following their meeting:

"Since our last meeting, we have made significant progress on several key border initiatives.

We are pleased to announce that, as a result of the Smart Border discussions, the NEXUS program for low-risk travellers will be expanded to every major crossing at the Canada-U.S. land border. In particular, INS, U.S. Customs, CCRA and Canada Immigration & Citizenship have agreed to move quickly to initiate the NEXUS program at three land border ports of entry along the British Columbia / Washington State border. They are the Pacific Highway, Peace Arch and Boundary Bay (B.C.) / Point Roberts (WA) crossings. We anticipate that NEXUS will be up and running at these ports of entry by summer 2002. By this summer, we also expect to announce a schedule for the expansion of NEXUS to other land border ports of entry. This builds on the successful pilot project at the Sarnia (Ontario) / Port Huron (Michigan).

By March 25, 2002, Canada and the U.S. will have joint teams of customs officials in the ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, Seattle-Tacoma and Newark to target marine containers destined for either country at their first port of arrival into North America. This initiative will contribute to the secure and efficient flow of goods across the Canada-U.S. border.

Finally, on February 14, 2002, the In-transit Preclearance Program at Vancouver International Airport was re-opened. The program was halted as a result of broad security initiatives undertaken at airports and border crossings following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Canada and the U.S. have concluded that there are no security obstacles to resuming in-transit preclearance at Vancouver.

We are also making excellent progress on the remaining elements of the Action Plan."

Jennifer Sloan
Director of Communications
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
(613) 952-4900