President Obama met last Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss issues of common interest, ranging from border security to business regulations to the ongoing situation in Egypt. While the American-Canadian relationship does not receive much press attention, the combination of a long international border, large amounts of bilateral trade and investment and major overlapping interests on defense issues make this bilateral relationship one of the most important for the United States.

According to the joint statement issued by President Obama and Prime Minister Harper, bilateral American-Canadian trade is valued at over half a trillion dollars each year. As they put it, "at the U.S.-Canada border, nearly one million dollars in goods and services cross every minute, as well as 300,000 people every day, who cross for business, pleasure, or to maintain family ties."

In their joint statement, Obama and Harper mentioned how both nations need to improve cooperation with regard to improving security at the border to prevent illegal crossings, in part to prevent international criminals and terrorists from moving freely across the American-Canadian border. Such a task needs to be undertaken in a way that increases transparency and the ease with which citizens acting legally can cross the border while not interfering with international trade. In fact, they mention that facilitating trade will be a goal of such a mission.

In order to implement such a vision, President Obama and Prime Minister Harper announced that:

• The United States and Canada intend to establish a Beyond the Border Working Group (BBWG) composed of representatives from the appropriate departments and offices of our respective federal governments.
• Responsibility for ensuring inter-agency coordination will rest with the President and the Prime Minister and their respective officials.
• They intend for the BBWG to report to their respective Leaders in the coming months, and after a period of consultation, with a joint Plan of Action to realize the goals of this declaration, that would, where appropriate, rely upon existing bilateral border-related groups, for implementation.
• The BBWG will report on the implementation of this declaration to Leaders on an annual basis. The mandate of the BBWG will be reviewed after three years.

In addition, both Obama and Harper declared that the US and Canada must move forward together to improving business regulations to make both nations more competitive. After all, due to how integrated our economy is with Canada's, the presence of conflicting regulatory standards between both nations presents the danger of undermining entrepreneurial opportunities and trade within and between both nations. Towards this goal, both national leaders announced that they:

Have directed the creation of a United States-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC), composed of senior regulatory, trade, and foreign affairs officials from both governments. In recognition of our $1 trillion annual trade and investment relationship, the RCC has a two-year mandate to work together to promote economic growth, job creation, and benefits to our consumers and businesses through increased regulatory transparency and coordination.

The RCC is scheduled to first meet within 90 days of the announcement.

Representative Harman Announces Retirement

After serving more than a decade-and-a-half in the House of Representatives, Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) will retire from elected office later this year. She is preparing to become the new president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The organization's board is set to make its final decision this Tuesday on whether or not to hire her for the position. If confirmed, Harman would replace a fellow Democratic former member of Congress, Lee Hamilton, who represented Indiana's Ninth Congressional District from 1965 to 1999.

Congresswoman Harman currently represents California's 36th District, which encompasses Los Angeles County. The district is heavily Democratic, but its district lines will likely be re-drawn through the redistricting process before the next election. In the likely event that Harman is approved as the next Woodrow Wilson Center president and thus would have to resign from Congress, Democrats are expected to hold the seat in a special election to fill the vacancy.