For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 8, 2002
Gov Ridge, Deputy P.M. of Canada Discuss Smart Border Plan
Joint Statement by the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, John Manley and the Director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge on Progress Made in the Smart Border Action Plan
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 after
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 travelers will be expanded
to three new 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.
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