CTA to ask Ottawa for crackdown on American drivers

OTTAWA (June 23, 1999) – The Canadian Trucking Alliance will appeal to federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Lucienne Robillard to step up enforcement of immigration rules against American truck drivers operating in Canada.

“In the interest of fairness, we want Canada to reciprocate the level of enforcement attention the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is giving to Canadian drivers running in the U.S.,” said Massimo Bergamini, CTA vice-president, government and public affairs.

Bergamini said a letter outlining the CTA’s concerns would be sent to Robillard today.

“There is a philosophy that’s driving our border policy, one intended to foster openness and to facilitate trade with the United States,” Bergamini explained. “The trouble is, there is a real imbalance in enforcement coming the other way. Immigration officials we’ve talked with say they lack the resources to level the playing field. We challenge that. It’s not an issue of resources, but an issue of political will.”

Earlier this month, CTA senior vice-president Graham Cooper complained that some of his association’s 2200 carrier members have encountered difficulties at the border ranging from fines and minor enforcement hassles to the seizure of vehicles. He said the CTA was compiling reports from carriers who felt their drivers had been treated unfairly by INS officials.

Cooper noted that recent policy changes to harmonize Canadian and U.S. rules on equipment cabotage, or point-to-point domestic movements of foreign-based trucks and trailers, has muddled how some INS officials are supposed to interpret immigration policy. For example, drivers who move empty Canadian equipment while in the U.S. — an allowable move under cabotage policy — may be seen as being “local labor for hire,” which contravenes American immigration rules.

The changes to policy on equipment moves are not intended to affect immigration policy.

Bergamini said he believes the crackdown on Canadian drivers is a rebound effect of U.S. policy toward Mexico. “I think we’re the victims of an enforcement psychosis,” he said. “The INS looks at what comes across from Mexico with a great deal of scrutiny, and there’s a tendency to want to apply the same standards to Canadian drivers. That’s their policy, so be it. But Canada needs to apply a comparable level of enforcement toward American drivers in order to keep the playing field level. The imbalance amounts to an unfair trade practice.”

In 1997, Revenue Canada and U.S. Customs reinterpreted their rules governing the determination of when trucks are engaged in international or domestic traffic. Under the new interpretations, the movement of equipment without payload (empty trailers) would no longer be considered domestic traffic. The origin and destination of freight, not the route of the equipment, would determine whether trucks are involved in international or domestic movements.

In February, the two countries agreed to allow a foreign truck to conduct an incidental domestic move following, or prior to, an international trip. For example, domestic goods may be transported between two points in the U.S., as long as the truck is en route to pick up an export load, or is heading back to Canada.

Cooper added that many of the problems with immigration enforcement have occurred at the Coutts-Sweetgrass crossing, the principle route across the Alberta-Montana border.