U.S. Decision To Ditch Talks On Border Plan Raises Questions About Relations

He was involved in early discussions about moving U.S. Customs operations to Canadian soil at the Peace Bridge linking Ontario and New York. "It's just not productive. For Pete's sake, we're working with Canada. We're not working with some Third World country." A successful pilot project at the Peace Bridge would have been expanded to other crossings, easing traffic snarls that cost Canada some C$8 billion a year. But Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff pulled out of talks this week after two years of high-level discussions. It came as a rude surprise to many since the measure is part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership announced with great fanfare by the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico in 2005 to keep borders open to trade but closed to terrorists. Getting the project off the ground by the end of this year was cited as a top priority in February by the North American Competitiveness Council that reports to the leaders. U.S. sources close to the discussions say the chief explanation for the move is a lingering view in the Bush administration that Canada's a pipeline for terrorists. And they've got big concerns about the impact on diplomatic relations. "For the U.S. to move unilaterally like this, what does that do for our credibility in trilateral talks?" asked one, who said the White House almost certainly gave its blessing to Chertoff. The main sticking point was Homeland's unwillingness to accept Canada's legal problem with having U.S. authorities take fingerprints of people who approach the border but decide not to cross. Canadian law doesn't permit fingerprinting unless someone volunteers or has been charged with a crime. Canada's assurances that it would co-operate in investigating any suspicious person who approaches the border weren't enough, said one Capitol Hill source. "The Attorney General's office really just wants to grab as much biometric information as it can," said the source. Canada won't consider any proposal that doesn't comply with Canadian law, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Thursday in Ottawa. But he's hopeful the U.S. will come back to the table. http://www.canada.com:80/topics/news/national/story.html?id=fc27a12e-2229-4bcd-9686-7961ec20d077&k=24741 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on April 30, 2007]

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