|
US imposes higher border crossing fees
Lora Grady
Ottawa—Members of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) expressed disappointment in June with a US government decision to implement new border crossing fees.
As of June 1, trucks previously paying a single crossing fee of US $5.50 saw an increase to $10.75. The levy is meant to pay for agricultural quarantine inspections on the Canada-US border.
The charge will apply to trucks paying to enter the US on a per crossing basis—regardless of what they carry—but won’t affect
carriers who have already purchased a 2007 user fee transponder.
David Bradley, CEO of the CTA, had been hoping the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) would delay implementing
the new fees, while talks were held to explore alternative means of reducing the threat to US agriculture by foreign pests.
“The cost of moving goods across the border is about to go up again, and once more, governments are looking to the trucking industry to foot the bill,” said Bradley.
“Carriers are frustrated because there seems to be no end in sight to rising border costs… whether it be for APHIS, for compliance with security programs such as C-TPAT or…for Canada’s Administrative Monetary Penalty System.”
He said carriers have been attempting to pass the fees along to their customers. The end result is a more expensive supply chain
for Canadian shippers and truckers.
“Regardless of who pays, it’s getting more expensive to move goods across the border with our largest trading partner. This can’t be allowed to continue if Canada is to remain competitive in the US market with goods from China, India, and other developing economic
powerhouses.”
Under an interim rule issued last summer, Canada’s long-standing exemption from US Agricultural Quarantine Inspection (AQI) fees
was removed. All modes of transportation will be impacted by the new fees.
In the case of trucking, those who buy an annual border crossing transponder saw their fees more than double from $100 to $205 when they purchased their 2007 transponders last fall, Bradley noted. b2b
|
