OTTAWA — A controversial new levy for cross-border truckers has been delayed once again, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

The additional fees and increased agriculture cargo inspections imposed by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was slated to take affect March 1, 2007. However, CTA reports, there will be another 90 day delay in the truck and rail provisions of the plan, which was first due to kick-in last November before being postponed by authorities.

A formal announcement will appear later this week in the Federal Register.

The extra time is supposed will allow for a Canada-U.S. technical working group to continue discussions on how to address concerns over potentially harmful pests introduced into the U.S. from food imports from Canada.

CTA says the plan to charge truckers for more agri
inspections is delayed. But some truckers have already paid.

However, while the news is a positive sign, the issue has not gone away, says CTA, which has been lobbying since last year to have the entire program scrapped or limited.

“I think it validates what CTA and many other business groups have been saying for some time — that the plan … was conceived without adequate consultation and needs to be re-thought,” said Canadian Trucking Alliance CEO David Bradley. “However, a delay does not mean the issue has gone away, and I would encourage federal officials to continue to press the U.S. to come up with a solution that does not result in a doubling of the annual charge to send a truck into the United States.”

When the rule eventually takes effect, truckers will have to fork over $5.25 US per crossing, or another $105 for an annual decal — on top of the current border crossing fee charge — whether the truck is carrying agricultural products or not.

The US Department of Agriculture and US Customs & Border Protection have agreed to streamline the administrative process for both fees into one system to be collected by CBP.

The bad news, however, is that even though implementation has now been twice delayed, many carriers have already purchased 2007 user fee decals to cross the border with the additional $105 fee, notes CTA.

Bradley says he’s hopeful this second delay will ultimately lead to the complete withdrawal of the plan, says Bradley. “But even if this is the case, we now have a situation where cross-border carriers have paid an annual user fee for 2007 for a program that will not be implemented until around mid-year, if at all. There is an issue of basic fairness here that CTA will be calling upon US officials to address.”