Canada, US to increase border capacity

Canada and the United States announced Friday plans to decrease border wait times at the Windsor-Detroit border crossings.

According to local press reports, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan and US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in Detroit in the United States,they would be increasing capacity at the busiest link between the United States and Canada by 25 percent.

"We are making progress at improving flows across the Windsor-Detroit Gateway, and we are prepared to do more," McLellan said.

McLellan said the Canada Border Services Agency will hire 30 new Canadian employees to work at the crossing in an effort to increase capacity.

McLellan and Ridge said this move will benefit trade for both sides of the border.

Border crossings between Canada's Windsor city and the US Detroit city are the busiest ones. More than 13.4 million cars andalmost two million commercial vehicles used the border crossings in 2003-2004.

Source: Xinhua