U.S. Wants to Tax Trucks at Border

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TORONTO (CP) — The U.S. administration wants to slap a levy on transport trucks that carry billions of dollars a day in goods across the Canada-U.S. border, a move that could be illegal under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The tax is to help pay for an overhaul of the U.S. Customs Service's 15-year-old computer system for processing imports, which has crashed twice in recent months because it cannot handle the increased volumes free trade has brought, the National Post reported today from Ottawa.

The old system is on its last legs but the Customs Service has not been able to secure the $1 billion US it says it needs to replace it. Even if it got the money today it would take at least four years to set up a new computer system, Customs officials say.

It isn't clear how much the levy would be on individual trucks but the Post said the tax would raise $150 million US by October 2001.

Taxes on trade fall into a grey area and the charge could be illegal under NAFTA, the paper said.

Canada has protested the levy and will fight it, said Leslie Swartman, spokeswoman for Sergio Marchi, the international trade minister.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance also said it is unfair to ask Canadian truckers to pay for a problem in the United States.