Agreement Settles CDL Issue
Once in place, the agreement will mean a commercial driver’s license from either country will qualify a driver to operate in the U.S. and Canada. Currently, drivers must take an extra medical exam in order to cross the border. The official exchange of letters occurred Dec. 30 and will take effect March 31.
Such an arrangement was supposed to be part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but it was stalled while negotiators in the U.S. and in Canadian provinces worked out the details.
The deal became a higher priority in October, when the Canadian Medical Protective Agency, a group representing doctors in Canada, advised its members to stop performing the U.S. medical exams Canadian drivers need to operate in the U.S. The CMPA was worried about the legal liability a Canadian doctor could face if a driver he or she examined got in an accident (TT, 11-9-98, p. 3).
CTA hoped the medical agency would tell its members to perform the exams during the 90-day period before the agreement takes effect. But James Sproule, a spokesman for CMPA, said the organization will continue to advise its doctors not to do U.S. medical exams until March 31.
“It’s exactly the solution we wanted, so we’re very happy it’s come about, but until such time as the agreement becomes effective, the situation is the same for us,” he said. “A member who fills out an American medical form in accordance with American law on the 30th of March is still subject to the legal vulnerability in the U.S.”
The problem of differing medical requirements was settled in the negotiation. Some epileptics, insulin-using diabetics and drivers with impaired hearing have been granted CDLs in one country but will not be allowed to operate in the bordering nation.
