OTTAWA (March 16) — The Canadian Trucking Alliance has joined a chorus of concern from shippers, customs brokers, and other transportation interests over a proposed “access” fees to pay for upgrades to U.S. Customs Service computer systems that process cross-border shipments.

Last week, a CTA delegation met with officials on Capital Hill from the appropriations committees of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. This week, CTA wrote to Canada’s Minister of National Revenue, Herb Dhaliwal, and Minister for International Trade, Sergio Marchi, to express concern about the future of the overworked Automated Customs System (ACS) and the implementation of a more capable system called the Automated Customs Environment (ACE).

President Clinton’s fiscal year 2000 budget proposes $163 million a year in “access” fees for importers and exporters using the automated systems to process shipments. The proposed fee would be charged to users of any Customs automated system based on the amount of data put in to the system by the user. High-volume users could pay millions annually.

The proceeds would be used to pay for modernizing the ACS, which has faltered recently under the stress of processing a huge volume of imports. Import clearances that are usually granted within minutes are taking hours and, in some cases, a full day to arrive back from Customs through the ACS. Customs was expected to install a new, more reliable processor this month to handle the increasing workload.

Customs brokers and importers and exporters strongly oppose the new fees, instead arguing that new systems be funded out of the general treasury.

CTA chief executive David Bradley said such fees would be an illegal tax on trade. He said there already exists a fee paid by the trade community that was designed to pay for the cost of U.S. Customs commercial operations — the merchandise-processing fee (MPF). However, the fund has been used in a large part to offset overall U.S. federal budget deficits, Bradley said. Moreover, the MPF has been deemed inconsistent with NAFTA and Canadian firms are therefore exempt. CTA has retained counsel to review this latest proposal from the Administration and advise whether there would be grounds to contest its application.

Overall, Clinton’s budget proposal includes more than $1 billion US in new fees on trade and transportation in order to reach a projected surplus. They include $980 million in fees on cargo to fund projects to deepen ports, replacing the harbor maintenance tax that was ruled unconstitutional; $88 million annually for Federal Rail Administration safety programs; $1.5 billion in cost-based user fees to fund air traffic control services provided by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Meanwhile, Congress is asking Customs officials for a cost-benefit analysis before release more funds to continue development of ACE.