Bradley Tells Bi-National Law Group Principles of Smart Border Accord Need to Be Restored

(Cleveland, OH, April 18, 2008) -- In a speech today to the Canada-United States Law Institute at Case Western University in Cleveland, OH, David Bradley, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance and president of the Ontario Trucking Association warned, "the thickening of the Canada-US land border imperils economic growth in the Great Lakes region which is already the front line of changing world supply chains."

"The Smart Border Accord of 2001 spoke to the need for more security PLUS improved trade facilitation through risk management, but things have gone off-track,” he said, citing the myriad of mainly US security measures. "We are now grappling with the theatre of security, where it’s check everything, everyone, all the time." He put the added cost to trucking companies to comply with all the new rules at around $500 per truck. "There has been no cost-benefit conducted so far as I can see on whether security has been improved; the need to assure the citizenry’s security is valid and legitimate but we have lost sight of the fact that the efficiency of the border was also part of the equation. At a time when our customers are trying to compete with good’s producers from China and elsewhere does it make sense to heap the kinds of additional costs on the supply chain that we have seen?"

"By participating in secure shipper/carrier programs we were supposed to see speedier and easier border crossings; it hasn’t worked out that way," he said.