The United States may have just elected a president who talks loudly against free trade, but last weekend the U.S. Congress quietly approved a bill that is very much pro-free trade between the U.S. and Canada – making the world's busiest border a little bit thinner.
It should soon be easier for people and goods to move between Canada and the U.S. than at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
This is a big deal for Canadians, who must contend with perennially congested crossings; that the House of Representatives and Senate thought enough of the bill to pass it before the Christmas recess speaks of the importance they accord to improving trade with Canada, which amounts to $65-billion or so per month.
Read more: U.S. Congress passes bill to enact long-awaited reforms for Canada-U.S. border
This is no small thing in an era of tough U.S. talk toward Mexico, American paranoia about threats outside its borders and a political climate where free trade has become an epithet.
The U.S. bill approves the expansion of the so-called 'preclearance' regime – an advance-screening system which has been in place in some Canadian airports since the 1950s – to other forms of transport. The expectation is that there could eventually be preclearance programs for rail, bus and car travel across the country.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that barely eight months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with President Barack Obama to discuss the proposal, a law has been sent to the Oval Office for the latter's signature. Given the dysfunctional Congressional politics of the past eight years, that represents something very close to a towering achievement.
Mr. Trudeau will justly claim part of the credit for the swift passage, but a share also goes to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who negotiated the basis for the deal in 2011.
It was assumed as recently as the summer that the main impediment to streamlining the border process would be U.S. approval. Not so. It is now the Americans who must wait for Mr. Trudeau's government, which tabled a companion bill this summer that has not yet progressed beyond first reading. Parliament should start moving it forward immediately.