FACT SHEET: Strengthening the United States-Canada Partnership

As President Biden has said, the United States has no closer friend, partner, or ally than Canada.  Over the past 150 years, our two countries have built one of the closest and most extensive relationships. Canada is our largest trading partner, with nearly $2.6 billion in goods and services crossing our shared border, the world’s longest land border, every day – an almost 20 percent increase in 2022 over the previous year. This trade supports millions of jobs on both sides of the border. Our people also share deep personal and familial ties, and we’ve worked together to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the world.

Under this Administration, President Biden has restored trust and confidence between our two countries while reaffirming the United States’ enduring commitment to the U.S.-Canada partnership. The U.S.-Canada partnership benefits not only our people, but the world – and by working together, there is nothing we cannot achieve. 

The United States and Canada are powering private sector investment to promote inclusive economic growth and create good paying jobs. We will use the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act to build integrated supply chains and make North America more competitive.

• Last year, the United States announced $250 million in Defense Production Act (DPA) funding for U.S. and Canadian companies to mine and process critical minerals for electric vehicle and stationary storage batteries. Awards to U.S. and Canadian companies will be announced this spring. The Canadian Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund will make CAD $1.5 billion available to support clean energy and transportation infrastructure projects and an additional CAD $ 1.5 billion available through the Strategic Innovation Fund to support advanced manufacturing, processing, and recycling. These mutual steps will strengthen U.S.-Canada collaboration on supply chain resilience.
  
• Both countries will advance a cross-border semiconductor packaging corridor, beginning with Canada and IBM providing significant incentives as part of a memorandum of understanding to develop new and expanded packaging and testing capabilities at its Bromont facility. The arrangement will generate jobs and economic activity in both Canada and the United States. 
  
• The United States also announced $50 million of DPA funding for U.S. and Canadian companies to further strengthen advanced packaging of semiconductors and printed circuit boards in North America. Canada will provide up to CAD $250 million for semiconductor projects from its Strategic Innovation Fund. 
  
• The United States and Canada committed to identify opportunities between the two countries to promote training and work opportunities in priority areas such clean energy and skilled trades, and bring together key players from multinational companies, unions, state and provincial governments, and educational and training institutions to grow the pool of talent needed for critical supply chains. The United States and Canada will work with automakers, battery manufacturers, and organized labor on sharing training efforts and cross-border credentials to meet the growing demands for electric vehicles in North America.
  
• The United States and Canada updated the Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Cooperation. Under the Plan, the Departments of State, Commerce, Defense, and Energy and the U.S. Geological Survey will work with Canadian counterparts on increased information and data sharing, joint efforts to promote private sector engagement, coordination on research and development, and cooperation at multilateral fora. 

Tackling the climate crisis is a key issue for President Biden, and both the United States and Canada – our largest energy trading partner – are committed to taking decisive action. Our countries will grow the clean energy economy by lifting up bold legislation like the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act to accelerate the clean energy transition and make North America a clean energy powerhouse.

• The United States and Canada have built the world’s largest market-based energy trading relationship, which provides a firm foundation as we strive to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. We will work to harmonize charging standards and develop cross-border alternative fuel corridors, drawing on USD $7.5 billion in the U.S. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and CAD $1.2 billion to build a network of electric vehicle fast chargers and community charging options on both sides of the border. 
  
• The United States and Canada will work towards collaboration on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Earthshot™, which are decadal performance targets for critical technology areas. Canada plans to embrace the goals of the Long Duration Storage Shot (LDSS), which aims to reduce the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90% for systems that deliver 10+ hours of duration within the decade. To drive toward the LDSS goal, Canada plans to focus on energy storage technologies for remote and off-grid applications.
  
• Canada will fund and provide in-kind support for the Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program, the Biden Administration’s leading international initiative to help partner countries develop nuclear energy programs under the highest standards for safety, security, and nonproliferation. The United States and Canada will also coordinate efforts to develop secure and reliable North American nuclear fuel supply chains that do not rely on authoritarian-based suppliers and will build broader partnerships with longstanding allies and partners, both of which will support ensuring access to low enriched uranium and High-Assay Low Enriched Uranium. 
  
• Building on Canadian and U.S. commitments to achieve net-zero power grids by 2035 and to accelerate efforts to phasedown new, unabated coal power generation facilities, both countries intend to propose regulations before this fall that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their respective sectors. The United States and Canada also intend to work with other major energy importers and exporters to develop an internationally aligned approach to measure, monitor, report, and verify lifecycle methane and CO2 emissions across the fossil energy value chain.
  
• The United States and Canada committed to work in close partnership with Arctic Indigenous Peoples and will use Indigenous Knowledge as an integral part of the decision-making processes wherever possible. The two countries recognized the need to reduce localized emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and black carbon in the Arctic to complement our global mitigation efforts. The two countries also committed to conserving and protecting Arctic biodiversity, ecosystems, habitats, and wildlife, and will collaborate to prepare for, prevent, and respond to oil spills and other environmental disasters in the Arctic.
  
• The Leaders recognized the challenges that the creation of the international border between the United States and Canada places on Indigenous communities. The leaders are committed to working together to address the impacts the shared border has on mobility, traditional practices, Native language preservation, kinship, cultural ties, and economic opportunities for Indigenous Peoples. This includes a commitment to work in partnership with Tribal Nations and Alaska Native Villages in the United States, and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples in Canada, to find solutions to these longstanding border challenges.
  
• Leaders committed to work over the coming months towards agreement on a modernized Columbia River Treaty regime that provides flood risk management, power generation, and environmental benefits that are shared equitably by both countries and the Indigenous and Tribal nations, communities, and stakeholders in this watershed.
  
• The United States and Canada are undertaking a joint technical review and assessment to examine whether the U.S.-Canada Air Quality Agreement (AQA), entered into in 1991, is meeting its environmental objectives as well as its sufficiency in addressing transboundary air pollution. The agreement includes commitments by both countries to address acid rain and ground-level ozone. The review will also examine pollutants/issues not currently addressed by the AQA, such as particulate matter (PM2.5). Under the agreement, the United States and Canada also cooperate on science and research topics such as wildfires, ammonia, and methane as an ozone precursor.

Irregular migration is a critical issue for the Western Hemisphere. As committed under the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, the United States and Canada are working closely to address these issues by prioritizing orderly and safe migration through regular pathways.

• Canada will welcome an additional 15,000 migrants on a humanitarian basis from top sending countries in the Western Hemisphere, such as Haiti, Colombia, and Ecuador, over the course of the year. The United States and Canada also announced the implementation of an agreement to apply the terms of the Safe Third Country Agreement to migrants who cross between the ports of entry.

The United States and Canada are committed partners in the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the only binational military command in the world. Recent events have made clear the importance of NORAD and of our partnership on continental security and defense. The United States and Canada will continue to closely coordinate to defend our airspace.

• Canada confirmed commitments to modernize NORAD capabilities. Canada will procure and field two next-generation Over-the-Horizon Radar systems, at least one by 2028, to enhance early warning and domain awareness of North American approaches. Canada will also make investments in the northern forward operating locations to support 5th Generation aircraft and mobility/refueling assets, capabilities that should be in place prior to the delivery of F-35s to Canada, to include airfield improvements to accommodate aircraft, personnel, fuel, and munitions.
  
• In the face of global threats, the leaders acknowledged the importance of investment in modern, ready, and capable forces in line with their commitments to NATO under the 2014 Wales Summit Defence Investment Pledge.  Such investments enable effective contributions to NATO, United Nations, and other global missions.

The trafficking of illicit drugs, including synthetic opioids like fentanyl, is a global challenge that causes needless death and suffering. The United States and Canada are committed to continue our close partnership to intensify and expand prosecution of drug traffickers, dismantle criminal networks, disrupt the supply of precursor chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl, and prevent the trafficking of drugs, firearms, and people across our shared border.

• Canada will join the United States as we build a global coalition against synthetic drugs, underscoring U.S. and Canadian leadership in response to this shared public health and security challenge. The global coalition will be open to countries from all regions of the world that are interested in accelerating global efforts against synthetic drugs. The United States also looks forward to working with our North American partners through the Trilateral Fentanyl Committee to beat the synthetic opioid epidemic. 

The United States and Canada redoubled efforts for stability in Haiti by continuing to work together to find a path for meeting Haiti’s security and humanitarian needs.

• The United States has committed over $90 million to support training and equipment for the Haitian National Police.
  
• The United States has provided more than $204.7 million in humanitarian funding to respond to complex humanitarian crises in Haiti, including a cholera outbreak, an earthquake, food insecurity, violence against vulnerable communities, and widespread population displacement.
  
• In the last six months, the United States announced an additional $56 million in humanitarian assistance for Haiti, delivered 450 metric tons of health, logistics, and water, sanitation and hygiene commodities to Haiti, and transported 232 metric tons of personal protective equipment for health care workers, rehydration fluids for cholera patients, and water disinfection tablets.

The United States and Canada also remain committed to improving health outcomes.

• The United States and Canada will work to transform international clinical trials and research, accelerate biomanufacturing innovation, strengthen the role of research during outbreaks, and exercise response capabilities to promote development of life-saving medical products. Our two countries will also increase scientific collaboration on the development of new and next generation medical countermeasures to stop outbreaks.

The United States and Canada also committed to strengthen space cooperation.  

• The United States strongly welcomed Canada’s decision to support the extension of operation of the International Space Station through 2030. The United States also welcomed the upcoming announcement of the names of the Artemis II mission crew, which includes a Canadian astronaut. 

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