TORONTO – Canada worries that U.S. plans for tighter screening of foreign visitors by 2005 will jam the U.S.-Canadian border crossed by 200 million people each year, a deputy prime minister said Thursday.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley called for special arrangements for Canadian citizens under the U.S. Visitor Immigrant Status Indication Technology system approved by Congress.

“Both for trade and tourism, if we can’t find a way to deal with this, it could be a real problem,” said Manley, who also is finance minister in Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s government.

He meets Friday in Toronto with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to update progress on the 30-point “smart border” plan worked up after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

The plan is intended to increase security along what is known as the world’s longest undefended border while permitting the flow of commerce and traffic that fuels a trade relationship worth more than $1 billion a day.

Manley said Friday’s meeting will announce an expansion of the NEXUS and FAST programs that provide pre-clearance lanes for goods and people crossing the border, as well as an agreement in principle to cooperate in developing science and technology to enhance border security.

But he expressed concern with the U.S. VISIT system, which could require Canadians who now cross the land border by simply showing their passport to fill out forms or undergo time-consuming screening.

He wants Ridge to confirm that Canadian visitors will be exempt from some of the more stringent VISIT provisions, such as fingerprinting and recording travel plans for entry-exit records.

Canada believes such record-keeping applies only to people from countries that require visas to enter the United States, Manley said. Canadian citizens do not need visas to cross the border.

“Under our interpretation of the current law, Canadian citizens already will not be subject to the entry-exit records,” he said. “We’d really like to get confirmation of that, preferably from the mouth of Secretary Ridge.”

Canada was trying to be proactive in offering ideas to solve the problem that Ridge can take to congressional leaders to convince them that the intent of the VISIT system would be fulfilled, Manley said.

Canada also will push for coordinated rules by Ridge’s Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on screening shipments of goods entering the United States under proposed bioterrorism legislation.

He said Canada was concerned that differing requirements for advance notification information of such shipments could pose a problem for perishable goods, such as produce or seafood.

One example would be 24-hour advance notice, which Manley said was impossible for some kinds of perishable goods.

“You can’t give 24-hour notice on your catch” of seafood, he said. “You don’t know what your catch is until it comes in and you want to get it out right away.”