CANADA. Canadians should be allowed to bring back as much as US$2,000 duty free from a single trip to the US – regardless of their length of stay, according to recommendations in a Senate defence committee report.
According to local media, the senators argue that the major increase in personal allowances, combined with harmonisation with US limits, will allow the Canada Border Services Agency to “better focus on security.” Authorities in both countries have long feared a terrorist strike on the Ambassador Bridge which connects Windsor, Ontario and Detroit. Local reports said that more trade flows over that bridge every year than the total trade between Japan and the US.
At present only C$50 in goods are allowed to be brought back in the country free and only for visits of 24 hours or more. The amount increases to C$200 after 48 hours and C$750 after a seven-day visit.
The report, obtained by The Globe and Mail, calls for harmonisation with US levels by 2007, then raising it to US$2,000 by 2010.
The report said this would benefit free trade and would further encourage US citizens to take advantage of the lower Canadian dollar.
“De-emphasizing the collection of customs duties and taxes at land border crossings would encourage this [Americans shopping in Canada], while at the same time accomplishing the committee’s main goal: to permit border inspectors to increase their focus on security,” states the report, titled “˜Borderline Insecure’.
A Statistics Canada report in February said that Canadians were no longer flocking to the US for cross-border shopping, because of the hassles at the border after the 9/11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
The study said visits by Canadians to the US have traditionally moved in line with the exchange rate. However, since 2002 that relationship has changed. Same-day trips by car across the border by Canadians peaked at 59.1 million in 1991, the last time the Canadian dollar was unusually high.
By 2001, they had fallen to 24 million. The number slumped to 20.9 million in 2002, and despite the approximately +30% rise in the Canadian dollar since then, remained flat in 2003 and inched up to 21.4 million last year, the report said.
