[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 13 (Monday, April 3, 2006)]
[Pages 582-584]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Interview With CTV

March 28, 2006

Canada-U.S. Relations

    Q. Well, first of all, Mr. President, thank you very much for 
inviting us into your home. We certainly appreciate that.
    Before we get on to talking about Canada-U.S. relations, I want to 
deal a little bit with your personal relations with Canadians. They 
haven't exactly been a roaring success. Does that matter? Does that 
matter to you? Does it matter to the relationship?
    The President. I think I've had very good relations with the 
Canadians with whom I've dealt. I mean, Prime Minister Chretien and his 
successor, Paul Martin, and I got along just fine. We didn't always 
agree, but I can understand people not agreeing with some of the 
decisions I made. But that doesn't necessarily mean there's any problems 
with the relationship.
    I guess much has been made about some of the name-calling that went 
on. That's just part of politics, and it doesn't bother me in the least. 
If I was bothered about name-calling from Canada, I'd certainly be 
bothered about name-calling from the United States as well. [Laughter]
    The relationship between Canada and the United States is really a 
relationship not necessarily by government only but by the peoples, by 
the interchange, by the exchanges we have, by the relatives on both 
sides of the border. And that's what really makes the relationship 
unique and very strong.

Trade With Canada/Softwood Lumber

    Q. In that regard, Prime Minister Harper, the new--I think this is 
now the third Prime Minister you've gone through----
    The President. It is. [Laughter]
    Q. ----in Canada. He said that of the top priorities that he's got, 
softwood lumber has to be number one; says it's, in his words, putting a 
very serious strain on the relationship between the two countries. 
You've often said that this is something that you want to take care of. 
I'm giving you an opportunity to make some news here. [Laughter]
    The President. I may not see that. [Laughter]
    Q. Okay. [Laughter] What would be--is there any one thing that you 
can do to unblock this issue?
    The President. Well, I can tell our people to try to find common 
ground. I thought we were pretty close to a deal a couple of years ago--
I can't remember the exact timing of it, but I know we've been working 
on softwood lumber for quite a while.
    I fully understand how difficult an issue this is, particularly from 
Canada's perspective, since there's been some rulings. And we want to 
get it solved. I told that to Stephen Harper, that I understand its 
importance. I understand its priority. And I'd like to get the issue 
resolved once and for all, myself. The best thing I can do is tell our 
negotiators that--see if you can find common ground.

[[Page 583]]

Again, we were close to an agreement before--maybe that's a place for 
people to look for common ground.
    I know it's not going to get solved if it's done--if these 
negotiations are public; it's going to require some very quiet 
consultations to see if we can do what I'd like to see done.
    Q. Can it be solved on your watch?
    The President. I certainly hope so. This is a difficult issue. I 
know it creates anxieties in Canada. I really don't want to create 
anxieties. On the other hand, I do want to be fair to our folks here as 
well, and I think we can find ground.

Canada-U.S. Border/Homeland Security

    Q. Talking about common ground, it seems to me that there's so much 
that we have in common between these two countries--we've got the 
world's largest undefended border; we're both countries at war; we've 
got boots on the ground in Afghanistan. And yet here at home, we're 
putting more barriers along that Canadian-American border.
    You've often said that the reason for this--or what Stephen Harper 
calls the passport problem--you've said that it's because you want to 
know who's coming and going across that border. So I guess it begs the 
question, are the Canadians not telling you who's coming and going? Are 
we not doing a good enough job?
    The President. Oh, I think Canada has been very cooperative, and the 
relationship between our services is very good. The idea is to have--it 
doesn't necessarily have to be a passport. It can be a document, a 
tamper-proof document that will expedite border crossings, not delay 
border crossings. The idea is to make sure that tourists and trade moves 
freely and terrorists don't.
    And right after September the 11th, obviously, our country took a 
hard look at the procedures enabling people to come back and forth 
across our borders, both north and south. And the idea was to come up, 
as I said, with a tamper-proof document. I know they've been focused on 
the passport, but surely we can design something--the law doesn't say 
passport only; the law says, kind of, passport-like, if I'm not 
mistaken.
    But the key is that it be tamper-proof. We've found a lot of, for 
example, driver's license forgeries throughout the United States that 
make it difficult to--you know, as best as we can assure our citizens 
that we know who's coming in and who's not.
    Q. I guess part of the problem for a lot of people in this is they 
say, look, it's not so much guys like you and me going across--we've all 
got passports or identity cards. But it's the minor league, peewee 
hockey team, or the peewee baseball team that won't be able to play in 
each other's countries right now because it's too much of a hassle to 
get this card.
    The President. Again, the idea is to make it hassle-free as best as 
possible. I can understand--I mean, on any change of the status quo, you 
can always find, kind of, the nightmare scenario that makes life--it 
makes it feel like life is going to be a lot worse. I don't think it 
necessarily has to be. I think we can work with our Canadian 
counterparts to come up with something that's rational and meets the law 
that has been passed by the Congress and that I signed.

Trade With Canada

    Q. Can you foresee--you're going down to Cancun as part of the 
exercise, I guess, of imagining a new North America and then getting it 
going. In your vision, can you foresee a day when there would be free 
travel of people across the borders without identity cards, just free 
movement of people in North America?
    The President. Oh, I don't know. That's probably down the road. But 
I'm not imagining an important relationship, though, because we're 
really building on what our predecessors left behind, which is a trading 
arrangement that has substantially increased trade between the United 
States and Canada and Mexico.
    Canada is our number one trading partner. I'm a believer that trade 
helps grow economies. I think free trade is an important part--and fair 
trade, something that Canadians want and something that Americans want 
is, free and fair trade--benefits both of us. You know, we traded about 
nearly $500 billion, two-way trade, in 2005, which is very positive for 
both our economies.

[[Page 584]]

    What I'm concerned about is that protectionist tendency and 
isolationist tendency that could emerge in both our countries as well as 
in Mexico, which would make it harder for us to realize the benefits of 
collaboration together, make it harder for us to, kind of, grow 
together. And that would be not beneficial for the hemisphere, and 
frankly, it will make it a lot harder for future Americans and Canadians 
and Mexicans to compete with the Chinese, for example.
    And so there is a relationship which exists which needs to be 
protected and nurtured and streamlined and made more efficient, and 
that's really what the discussions will be in Cancun.

Canadian Government

    Q. A quick last question for you, I don't know if you're going to 
take the bait on this one.
    The President. Probably not.
    Q. Okay. [Laughter]
    The President. Now that you've let me know----
    Q. I let the cat out of the bag.
    The President. ----let me know there was a hook coming. [Laughter]
    Q. Are you any happier with the Conservative Government in Canada 
than a liberal government?
    The President. I am--I respect the will of the Canadian people, and 
as I say, you know, this is--there were some tense times when I made the 
decision to go to war in Iraq, and I understand that. I'm not the--I 
fully understand why people, not only in Canada but in the United 
States, expressed deep concern about the use of force to protect 
ourselves. I stand by the decision. I think it's the right decision. And 
therefore, I wasn't surprised when I heard, you know, members of 
political parties in both our countries express deep concern about it.
    Having said all that, however, in the midst of turbulent times, my 
relationships with the two Prime Ministers, prior to Stephen Harper, 
were good, solid relationships. We had candid discussions; we were 
friendly toward each other; we shared the same values of human rights 
and human dignity and freedom to speak and freedom to worship.
    So I view the relationship with Canada as a very strong and 
important relationship for the United States of America. It's a 
relationship that we should never take for granted, and I'm confident 
the Canadians won't take our relationship for granted. And it's a 
relationship that needs attention and care. And there are problems that 
arise, like softwood lumber. Hopefully we'll get that solved. But we've 
also had a BSE issue that came up on my watch, which we solved, as well 
as potatoes. We had a potato issue when I first became President of the 
United States, that we worked through with Prime Minister Chretien.
    Q. Mr. President, you've been very generous with your time, and I 
appreciate it.
    The President. Well, thanks for coming.
    Q. Thank you.
    The President. Welcome to Washington.
    Q. Thank you, sir.

Note: The interview was taped at 2:55 p.m. in the Map Room at the White 
House for later broadcast. In his remarks, the President referred to 
former Prime Ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, and Prime Minister 
Stephen Harper of Canada. The transcript was released by the Office of 
the Press Secretary on March 29.