Technicality bars Canadian explosive haulers from U.S.

OTTAWA (Jan. 21, 2003) — Starting this Friday Jan. 24, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) will prohibit any non-resident of the U.S. from possessing explosives, including for purposes of transportation. This prohibition will include Canadian resident drivers transporting explosives between the U.S. and Canada.

This situation is an “unintended consequence” of the newly enacted Safe Explosives Act, which was attached to the Homeland Security Bill, says the Canadian Trucking Alliance. The prime objective was to ensure that anyone possessing explosives undergoes a background security check (complete with the usual fingerprinting and photographing), however the authors of the bill apparently overlooked the fact that non-residents may also be screened to the satisfaction of the U.S. government, which is currently being done with Canadian drivers under the FAST program.

The CTA was advised there is a process whereby non-residents can apply for what amounts to a waiver, however, this process is said to be time-consuming and uncertain. While it’s likely that a technical correction to the act will be put in place by Congress, this process is also expected will take several weeks, perhaps months. In the meantime, the CTA says it will be meeting with Canadian and U.S. government officials to look for a quicker solution, which, in the end, can only come from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Designate Tom Ridge.

While the CTA is confident it can work out a political solution, it did mention that the prohibition against Canadian drivers may be challengeable under the national treatment provision of NAFTA, although such a move is hopefully unnecessary, the CTA said.