Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Globalization is Over-rated, Tale 47

There is good news for border-crossers: the US and Canada are working to make it easier to cross the border.  It would allow that which happens at eight Canadian airports to take place in other ways--that I get cleared by US customs at the Ottawa airport (or Montreal or Toronto, etc) so that the plane then lands anywhere in the US without having to do the customs thing.  The story here suggests that customs people can board trains or buses and pre-clear people before the border so that people don't have to get off, go through customs at the border, and get on.

Great in theory.  But given that I have only been able to go the Nexus line once or twice when I have driven back to Canada, because it is almost always closed, I wonder if either country will pour money into having the personnel and/or into building customs facilities elsewhere to make this happen.  New customs facilities in bus stations?  Really?  Hmmm. 

Given the budget realities in both Canada and the US, consider me a doubter for now.  In the long run, this stuff is likely to work out pretty well.  In the short run, I just don't expect to see that much to change.  After all, despite the imaginations of the globalization fans, Canada and the US remain two distinct countries that fall way short of the Schengen stuff in Europe.  We ain't no EU and it ain't happening anytime soon. 

Right now, all I really want is for the Nexus lines in both directions to be open longer (the US is 9-5ish it seems except on weekends, Canada: who knows).  

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