P&G Exec Seeks Thinner U.S.-Canada Border

(Journal of Commerce Online – William B. Cassidy)

U.S., Canada should follow ‘single market’ strategy in trade, says Healey

The United States and Canada need to emulate businesses pursuing a “single market” strategy for trade and security, a top Procter & Gamble executive says.

Friction over security and trade policy threatens the economic recovery and the competitiveness of both nations, said Melanie Healey, group president for North America at Procter & Gamble.

“Heightened security has led to a thickening border” since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Healey said Wednesday at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.

“With 40,000 truckloads of P&G goods crossing the border every year, we’re concerned about this,” she said. Two- to four-hour backups at the border cost P&G roughly 80,000 to 160,000 hours each year, Healey said. That equals about nine to 18 years of delay. Read more here.