WASHINGTON, D.C. Michigan State congressmen and business leaders are calling for more agents to man the Canada-U.S. border to help improve the movement of goods across the line.

Detroit area plants are suffering the affects of delayed deliveries due to border backups and production at some of these plants is threatened, business leaders say.

"Good management at the border means an awful lot to American industry," says U.S. representative John Dingell. "The failure to have good moving is costing us huge amounts of goods and opportunity."

There was recently a closed-door meeting between the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Services and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Congress and Michigan Delegation to discuss the situation.

More agents and better technology at the border crossings was deemed to be the most effective way to deal with the crisis.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce waned that the economy could go into a tailspin if the situation isn’t soon alleviated.

"Pretty soon businesses or plants are going to say ‘the heck with it, I don’t need these (border) problems, I’ll go to Michigan,’" says Nancy Hughes Anthony. "This is really hurting Windsor, but Toronto, Vancouver and even Montreal are also being affected by the same issue. We have to get the federal government united that they really want to work on this."