Ambassador: U.S. rules on border identification could be out by next week

Business groups on both sides of the border have warned it will slow traffic to a crawl at border crossings and impede trade while tourism advocates say it will discourage vacationers and cross-border shoppers.

Harper asked high-powered business leaders at the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday to lobby their government for more time to develop a simple alternative to passports, which only one in four Americans possess.

"We are operating the largest commercial relationship in the history of the planet," said Harper. "In our view, this initiative threatens to divide us at exactly the time we should be collaborating closely on global economic and security challenges."

Wilkins said he expects the Department of Homeland Security to publish the rules for the alternative secure ID card as early as next week. It likely will be the size of a driver's licence and contain the same information as a passport, he said.

The U.S. government, starting with President George W. Bush, is committed to working with Canada to implement the new pass card, he said. Wilkins said he's confident once the system is in place it will make cross-border travel and trade easier.

"No one in my country wants to impede trade and no one wants to impede the wonderful tourism we have between our two countries," said Wilkins. "But as President Bush has said, there can be no prosperity without security.

"We are in a post 9-11 era. Unfortunately we can't turn the clock back."

Wilkins said the U.S. working relationship with Canada has strengthened in the last year, citing a stream of high-level administration officials who've visited the country, most prominently Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's Sept. 11 anniversary visit to Nova Scotia.

"She could have been anywhere in the world on that sacred and sombre day but she chose to be here in Canada," he said. "I think that fact alone says so much about the importance the United States places on this relationship."

The depth of the relationship is so seamless "that we can fall prey to escalating minor irritants into major crises," he said.

Wilkins, notable for chiding the former Liberal government for perceived anti-American outbursts, spoke carefully when one business executive asked him if the improved relationship had anything to do with the Conservatives taking power.

The U.S. administration will work with whatever government Canadians elect, he said.

"But I do believe that in the last few months, the relationship has gotten stronger and more positive, and so you can draw your own conclusion as to why," he said.

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