The Post-September 11 Thickening of the US-Canada Border

On September 11 Detroiters quickly realized just how important the existing Detroit-Windsor bridge was for the region's integrated automotive economy. The terrorist attacks brought commerce to a screeching halt with immediate increases in security checks and more stringent travel and cargo documentation requirements. While the most onerous of these requirements were eventually lifted, there remained a post-September 11 “thickening” of the US-Canada border that made it harder for legitimate trade and travel with our largest trade and tourism partner.

In 2011 US President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Harper rightly recognized the onerous costs of the border—conservatively estimated at $10 billion a year of additional expenses due to inspection delays, paperwork requirements, and regulatory differences—and announced initiatives that would make it easier for goods and people to cross. At the same time, Michigan's Governor Snyder was considering building a new bridge across the said border crossing, and Congressman Peters was looking to stimulate economic activity in his district. As an APSA congressional fellow with a background in borders I had arrived on Capitol Hill at just the right time. While the majority of APSA congressional fellowships have a Canadian flavor, given the study trip to Ottawa to compare the Canadian and American legislative systems, I had no idea that my year would be such a Canadian one. By the end of the fellowship I had traveled to Ottawa, Edmonton, Montreal, and Windsor and had developed a newfound appreciation for our closest neighbor, partner, friend, and ally.

Michigan's New 14th Congressional District

Congressman Peters' new congressional district includes the suburbs, the city of Detroit, and the Detroit-Windsor border with its existing bridge, and vehicle and rail tunnels. The Detroit-Windsor corridor is North America's, and arguably the world's, most valuable trade artery linking the industrial basins of Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland with those of Toronto and Montreal and responsible for more than a quarter of US-Canadian trade. More than $330 million in goods crosses the Detroit-Windsor border each day. The border's competitiveness vis-à-vis other crossings, however, has waned recently because of capacity constraints due to aging infrastructure, limited customs plaza space, and inadequate highway connections, especially on the Canadian side.

A New International Trade Crossing

To reduce transportation costs and improve reliability of the crossing, the Michigan and Ontario governments proposed construction of a second Detroit-Windsor bridge across the Detroit River. After extensive public consultation, they identified a location two miles south of the existing bridge that would connect the new bridge directly with the highway network, thereby avoiding downtown Windsor and its at-grade railroad crossing and 17 street lights—the only street lights on the entire road from Mexico to Montreal! The proposal stalled due to opposition from the owner of the existing bridge, who saw the new bridge as a threat to his Detroit-Windsor trade. However, in 2012 the Governor of Michigan used his executive authority, as provided for in the Michigan Constitution, to sign an agreement with the Government of Canada to build the new bridge in Michigan's new 14th district. Canada—in a testament to the value that it places on the bridge—agreed to advance the capital requirements for the $2 billion project. The bridge is arguably North America's most important infrastructure project directly linking North America's two largest economies and facilitating trade with the third—Mexico. The project is expected to create roughly 10,000 new construction jobs in the Michigan-Ontario region and will reinforce Detroit's strategic position as a transportation and logistics hub in the 21st century at the heart of the Great Lakes economic region. Although there is still a bit of work to do before the bridge becomes reality (construction is expected to take up to a decade) it was exciting to see Congressman Peters at the bridge's public announcement ceremony last June.

Figure 1

Crossing the Detroit River on the Detroit-Windsor truck ferry and looking north toward North America's most valuable border crossing

Photo courtesy of Matthew Asada

Three Lessons from Another Bridge

While working as a fellow in the congressional office, I could not help but think back to a previous bridge project that I had been involved with. Five years prior in Asia I had worked to open and maximize the trade opportunities of the new Afghan-Tajik bridge across the river Amu Darya. This was the first bridge between the two countries linking together what the river, and the Cold War, had kept apart. Although the projects are of vastly different scale both in expense and trade volume (the Detroit-Windsor bridge is 20 times more expensive than the Afghan-Tajik bridge) three lessons are worth sharing: in addition to the actual bridge and customs infrastructure, a successful crossing requires travel documentation issuance facilities, well-trained customs personnel, and local binational political cooperation.

Trusted Travelers

One of the most valuable and enjoyable parts of the congressional fellowship was interacting with constituents. It was often from constituents that the best policy ideas were born or the more egregious ones were highlighted. While the American and Canadian governments have taken steps to make it easier for trusted travelers, those preregistered with the government, to cross the border through dedicated clearance lanes at land and air ports of entry, further work is needed. One area ripe for cooperation—brought to the Congressman's attention by a constituent—is reporting requirements for pleasure boaters. Given the extensive interior coastline, many Michigan and Ontario residents enjoy boating on the lakes and often unknowingly cross the undefined maritime border. The United States and Canada had historically observed a “no landing, no reporting” requirement, that is, if a boater was fishing in the lake and crossed the international border, but did not land on the other side, the individual did not have to report to either country as having arrived or departed. However, last year the Canadians began enforcing a standing, but regularly overlooked, reporting requirement thus triggering a reciprocal American reporting requirement. Reinstituting a “no landing, no reporting” requirement would improve the quality of life, and the quality of boating, for Americans and Canadians on both sides of the border.

In the course of my fellowship with Congressman Peters, I gained a much better appreciation for our northern neighbor and its importance to our own economic development. Just as France and Germany are the engines of Europe's economic activity, so too are Michigan and Ontario the manufacturing motors of North America. We need to make it easier, not harder, for our citizens to create businesses and trade with one another to be the North American powerhouse that can compete globally with Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world in the 21st century. Detroit and Windsor are unlike any other two cities in North America whose downtowns may be physically separated by a river, but whose people, companies, and families are tightly integrated and may, in the future, be connected by a new bridge running through US Representative Gary Peters' 14th congressional district.