Is Canada America's Largest Trading Ally?

 An interconnected electrical grid that satisfies jointly agreed reliability requirements is operated by the US and Canada. The uranium mines in Canada provide fuel for US nuclear power reactors.

With more than 30 significant cross-border transmission lines carrying $2.3 billion (USD) in bilateral trade, the energy networks of the United States and Canada are heavily interconnected. Canada enjoys a $1.4 billion (USD) surplus in electricity commerce and is a major power provider to the northeastern United States. Through the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which protects the physical and cyber security of our common electrical system, the two nations collaborate. A growing number of people are considering importing Canadian hydroelectricity and hydrogen storage as a way to shift to renewable energy sources, such as base load power for wind and solar power plants.

Increasing Defense and Security

More than any other nation, the US and Canada work together on defense issues. Under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United States and Canada have collective defense responsibilities (NATO). Under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the only binational military command in the world, military personnel from the United States and Canada collaborate on continental defense. To address the present problems, the US and Canada are upgrading NORAD. For bilateral defense matters, the Permanent Joint Board on Defense offers policy-level guidance.

The US and Canada cooperate both inside and outside of our borders to improve economic competitiveness and security as well as to permit the unrestricted movement of people, products, and services between our two nations. Four areas of collaboration are the focus of these activities: improved law enforcement cooperation; early threat detection and mitigation; resilience promotion, encompassing cybersecurity and critical infrastructure; and facilitation of legal trade and travel. Through reliable traveler programs like our combined NEXUS program, which has over 1.8 million members, we promote safe and approved travel. Thanks to agreements, we are able to exchange information on individuals requesting immigration and visas, as well as information about those crossing our common border. This preserves our immigration processes and improves security in both nations without adding to border delays. Large-scale law enforcement cooperation includes cooperative efforts like the Shiprider Integrated Cross Border Maritime Law Enforcement program, which patrols our shared waterways, risk assessment and analysis, incident management, and taskforces for the sharing of operational information. Furthermore, eight Canadian airports are home to preclearance facilities run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which enables visitors to finish immigration, customs, and agricultural processes prior to boarding flights to the United States. The 2015 Preclearance Agreement for Air, Rail, Marine, and Land Transportation In August 2019, the United States and Canada signed an agreement that gives preclearance officials in both nations the reciprocal authority and legal framework required to conduct security, facilitation, and inspection operations in the other nation. It also permits the transfer of the existing immigration pre-inspection processes for ferries and cruise ships to full preclearance, and the co-location of officers at small, remote Ports of Entry along our common land boundary.

Along with their counterparts in the Western Hemisphere, the United States, Canada, and Mexico work together in the 2021 North American Leaders' Summit and the 2022 Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, which twenty of the region's nations will sign.

Growing Global Partnerships

In the Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated their strong commitment to the G7, G20, NATO, the WTO, and the Five Eyes group.

The United States and Canada, two of the eight Arctic states, work together both individually and through the multilateral Arctic Council to address shared challenges including promoting sustainable economic development and combating climate change. In their Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership, Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden agreed to launch an expanded U.S.-Canada Arctic Dialogue. Canada welcomed President Biden's announcement in January 2021 of a temporary drilling restriction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In February 2021, the leaders of the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit peoples reached a consensus to support the preservation of the Porcupine caribou herd's calving area, which straddles our common border and is vital to their way of life.

Energy and Climate

President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau promised to fortify the Paris Agreement's implementation in order to boost the scope and tempo of action to solve the climate issue in their Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership. In order to achieve the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming, the United States and Canada collaborate across several industries to boost technological innovation and adoption of emission-reducing solutions. We also work together to improve resilience to common climate impacts and to broaden our understanding of them. Canada and the US work closely together on a bilateral level as well as in multilateral groupings to increase global climate ambition.

A bilateral collaboration between the United States and Canada aims to reduce the high number of opioid addictions and deaths associated with them. An integrated action plan was introduced in January 2020 to address the negative health effects of problematic opioid usage while also assisting in the fight against opioid trafficking by collaborating with border security and law enforcement. Apart from our collaborative efforts, the US and Canada also take part in the G7 and the North American Drug Dialogue to address opioid issues.