Professor Debra Steger Appears on CPAC to Discuss Border Security
On June 7, 2009, Professor Debra Steger appeared on Goldhawk Live, on the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), to discuss U.S. border security issues and problems with the U.S. “Buy America” policy.
Host Dale Goldhawk welcomed Prof. Steger to a roundtable discussion with Jean-Michel Laurin, Vice-President, Global Business Policy, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters; Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister of International Trade and Investment; and Scotty Greenwood, Executive Director, Canadian-American Business Council.
The group discussed the new requirement for passports or enhanced documents for cross-border travel between Canada and the United States and the possible effects of this tighter security on trade. “This has been a pretty open, undefended border for a very long time,” said Prof. Steger, “and we have so many people and so much trade flowing back and forth that it would be great if we could keep it as open as possible.” She added, “apart from trade tourism is also a problem; tourism from the United States is going down. Not a lot of Americans, on average, carry passports, so it’s going to hamper tourism and movement of goods and people generally.”
Regarding possible solutions to the problem, Prof. Steger looked to the Canadian government: “I think the federal government should be much stronger in dealing with the U.S. government and in trying to put pressure on U.S. states and municipalities. The problem is, the ‘Buy America’ statute is a federal piece of legislation – it’s the U.S. federal government that is doling out the money to these municipalities and states.” Real solutions, the roundtable agreed, have to come from a change in attitude from the White House and its administration; security needn’t come at the expense of trade.
Prof. Steger was formerly General Counsel to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal during the creation of NAFTA, and was also an architect of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a senior negotiator for Canada in the Uruguay Round of negotiations.
Click here to watch the entire program.