OTTAWA: Canada could soon have its first customs facilities inside the United States, says an American official who cites Florida and Arizona as potential sites for pilot projects in ongoing experiments to modernize the border.
This would come decades after American preclearance facilities were first placed at major Canadian airports, where travellers have long cleared customs before flying to the U.S., with the goal of reducing wait times at the back end.
Newer innovations involve train travel, with pilot projects to have rail passengers clear U.S. customs in Montreal and B.C., as the latest in ongoing efforts between the administrations of Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
“Such deployments can only make cross-border commerce and travel more efficient. … With the world growing smaller every day, we look to these and other programs to further facilitate trade and travel flows.”
He was among several speakers at a conference about the future of the Canada-U.S. border, hosted in Washington by the Wilson Center.
