I will say it has been frustrating for us as a government to see from time to time measures taken by our American cousins that appear to fly in the face of the spirit in which Canada and the United States have collaborated.
As you know, not long ago we agreed upon a set of measures under our border vision initiative as well as our Regulatory Cooperation Council initiative, all intended to do the following: to move security to the perimeter of our two countries, to thin out the border, and to collaborate and cooperate on how we do business so we can do it more cost-efficiently. Again, it's about trade facilitation.
When you see new fees being proposed at the border, those who are promoting them clearly see them as a quick fix for some immediate fiscal challenges. We have impressed upon our counterparts in the United States that the best job creator is free and uninhibited trade between Canada and the United States. There's no better job creator than trade between our two countries.
The more we can do to allow that trade to happen in an unencumbered way, the more we're going to drive prosperity on both sides of our border. When a fee is imposed on the American side of the border, it impacts jobs and businesses not only on our side of the border, but also on the American side of the border because of the highly integrated nature of our two economies.
Parts flow across our border many times before a final product has been assembled. Whatever we can do to remove barriers is a very significant step forward to achieving greater levels of trade and doing so more efficiently.