U.S., Canada Try to Uncork Border

The United States and Canada have a plan in the works to slash border crossing times for truck drivers.

Herb Dhaliwal, who heads Revenue Canada, came to Washington May 17 to talk with legislators and U.S. Customs Service officials about easing the process of getting from one country to the other.

As a result, the two countries have set in motion plans to eliminate the mount of paperwork truckers have to deal with at the border. Officials want to substitute the current procedure with a self-reporting system in which customs will look at shipments at their destinations rather than hold them up at the border.

Part of the plan will put more bodies at key border-crossing locations to speed things up.

Dhaliwal said the changes are necessary to uncork the trade bottleneck that has resulted from a 50% increase in the flow of goods across the border since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1993.

He wants the 100 largest shippers, which handle 40% of the goods going across the border line, to periodically provide information about the products transported to customs officials. The companies would also calculate and pay their import taxes.

In return, their trucks will get through customs without having to stop or submit paperwork that can gum up border crossings.

For the full story, see the May 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.