OTTAWA (March 11, 2002) — Canada and the United States will exchange a limited number of customs officers at the ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, Seattle-Tacoma, and Newark to target contraband arriving in marine containers destined for either country at their first port of arrival into North America.

U.S. Customs already has three officers working at the Port of Vancouver. They remaining officers are expected to be in place in Montreal and Halifax by March 25. Canadian officers will be in place in Newark and Seattle by the end of March.

Canadian customs officers will pre-screen and examine containers arriving from abroad at U.S. ports that are destined for Canada, and U.S. customs officers will target containers arriving in Canada destined for the United States, thereby eliminating the need to re-examine the containers at the shared border.

Approximately 500,000 containers that arrive in Canada annually move in-transit to the U.S. either by road or rail, and approximately 200,000 containers move to Canada from the United States.

The initiative is part of the “smart border” declaration signed by the two countries on Dec. 12.