While the Free Trade Agreement with Canada is creating a wide-open market for commercial activity between the two countries, U.S. Customs Service policy is creating an expensive bottleneck in Maine. That was the substance of complaints heard Tuesday in Presque Isle by the trade ombudsman for the U.S. Customs Service. It deserves that agency’s serious consideration and attention from the Maine congressional delegation.

Maine shippers, truckers and businessmen concerned with future development in Aroostook County made a strong case with Customs ombudsman Kent S. Foster for a more flexible system that will allow goods to flow into the county through more than one port of entry.

Currently, Customs has designated Houlton, Calais and Jackman as commercial ports. Shippers and traders wanting access to Maine through more convenient border cities must apply for permits, a bureaucratic process with an uncertain outcome. For a Canadian shipper along the Aroostook County border, whose easiest access to the U.S. market may be many miles from Houlton, failure to secure a permit makes trade much more expensive than it should be.

Border security is important, but it is not the issue here. The issue is policy and bureaucracy.

At a time when its political leaders are talking about the challenges of free trade and the global economy, the United States should be opening up its border, not closing off useful ports with red tape.