U.S., Canada Preparing Report on Border Fees, as Part of Beyond the Border Action Plan
The U.S. and Canada, moving to the next phase of the Beyond the Border Action Plan initiative, are commissioning a third-party contractor to do an economic impact assessment of border fees. The result will be a joint report on border fees to be completed by spring 2014, CBP said.
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One commitment of the 2011 Border Action Plan was to “bring greater public transparency and accountability to the application of border fees and charges, with a view to reducing costs to business and promoting trade competitiveness.” The inventory of fees includes those applied on a per-entry basis on goods imported into the country, those mandatory to the entry of goods into the country, regardless of when or where the fee is collected, fees established by legal authority (legislation, regulation, or statutory authority), and those administered by a department or agency of either federal government.
The inventory doesn't include fees not related to the movement of goods, fees applied to people as service providers, people as travelers, or people for immigration purposes, fines, penalties, customs duties, tariff rate quotas, or excise taxes, fees collected by a provincial, territorial, state, or municipal order of government, fees collected by private entities, non-transactional fees (such as annual license or warehouse fees), fees from which either party is exempt under trade agreements (such as NAFTA), or voluntary fees (such as fees paid to enroll in trusted trader programs), CBP said.
For the 2010-2011 fiscal period Canada collected $34,191,797 in fees, and the U.S. $230,200,384, CBP said. That was 0.017% of all imports for Canada, and 0.077% for the U.S., it said.