The United States had previously announced that passports would be required by January 1, 2008 to cross the U.S. border. This has since been revised several times with the current discussion being a form of special ID issued just for crossing the border that will be easier and cheaper to get than a passport.
A recent article in Business in Vancouver discussed the woes of travel companies in Washington State that provide transportation to Canada. Bellingham based Victoria San Juan Cruises has indicated that they have already seen a drop in their cruise ship travel between Bellingham and Victoria of 20%. Company owner Drew Schmidt stated that travellers are already confused by what is required even though nothing has actually changed yet.
I think this confusion is the most damaging part of the proposed cross border ID requirements. There have been several proposals of what is actually going to be required by 2008, but there seems to be no definitive answer as of yet. Business people and even casual travellers need to have confidence of what is required when the cross the border either for business or pleasure. Creating confusion is going to cause cross border business and travellers to rethink their cross border business and trips.
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