Strengthening Strong Ties: A Q&A With John Prato

$32.2 billion in bilateral trade takes place across the 445-mile shared border between New York and Canada. John Prato, a former ma+naging director of a division of The TD Bank Financial Group, has been consul general of Canada in New York since March 2011 by appointment of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Prato is a firm believer that our strong cross-border ties can be strengthened even more. He spoke with City & State Editor Morgan Pehme about the opportunities for growth.

The following interview has been edited for space and clarity.

City & State: What is the relationship between Canada and New York?
John Prato: No two countries in the world have the relationship that our two countries have. We see it particularly in trade: It is the largest trade relationship in the world. In 2013 it was $780 billion. That is over $2 billion a day. By the time we finish this interview, my guess is that we have already done about $10 million in trade, because it is about $1.3 million every single minute, so you can see the magnitude of it. For example, 36 of the 50 states call Canada their number one export market. So New York’s largest export market by a country mile is Canada. In fact, Canada is a bigger customer of New York State than the next two countries combined. Trade with Canada is responsible for 8 million jobs in this country. And when it comes to New York State, roughly 570,000 jobs are tied to trade in Canada.

C&S: How well have New York and Canada worked together from a governmental standpoint?
JP: You can never have this strong a trading relationship without strong relationships at the governmental level. They’re a precursor to having good trading relationships. We work very closely with Albany, we work very closely with Washington, D.C., we work very closely throughout the state to make sure everyone understands the close relationships between our two entities. And today we are working closely on several issues at the border to help ensure that goods get across the border in a faster, more expedient manner. You couldn’t do that if you didn’t have strong relationships between our two countries, both nationally and at the state level.

C&S: What are your foremost priorities to ease cross-border commerce?
JP: One thing we can do to increase our prosperity in the short term is to make sure the border is not an impediment to the legitimate movement of goods and of people. And I stress that there should never be a trade-off with security. We have two initiatives going on. The Beyond the Border initiative—what we are trying to do is not weaken the border but make sure goods are not trapped at the border. We are sharing more information not just at the border but prior to the border; sharing better quality information to keep our continent safe; making the investments that are required in the infrastructure to make sure we have the best technology. So if something is checked once, it is verified twice. It doesn’t have to be checked twice separately. And there are some really interesting pilots going on—IBET, or Integrated Border Enforcement Teams. This would be Canadian law enforcement embedded with U.S. law enforcement and vice versa. So if criminal acts [started] in the U.S. try and go over the border, previously American [law] enforcement agents would have to stop [pursuit] because they couldn’t cross the border. Now we will have a Canadian embedded in that unit, so that when they cross the border, the Canadian can conduct the proper measures, and vice versa. The other thing we are working on is called Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC). When you have an economy as integrated as ours, over time many regulations that have built up just don’t make sense. … Is there duplication that no longer needs to be done? Are we using technology effectively? We have 29 initiatives under the Regulatory Cooperation Council, and both input from American and Canadian businesses as well as associations [that] have come together to say, “These are the things that really slow down trade.”

C&S: What can we do on a state governmental level to foster our relationship?
JP: It is important that we explain the relationship and the possibilities. I want to explain to you some of the incredible opportunities that Western New York has. We had a matchmaking session where we brought our six largest energy companies that are participating in the oil sands, and we brought them to meet companies in Western New York and partly Western Pennsylvania, because we need your products. We need engineering, environmental and manufacturing. When you look at the oil sands, look at it as a massive technology incubator where a lot of new technologies are being applied to increase the efficiencies and the productivity of the production of oil … in an environmentally sound way. So my message to leaders in Albany is: Let’s find ways of further expanding trade. There are greater opportunities, and you have to take advantage of them. When we take advantage of them, then we can compete with the rest of the world.