November 2 2004

The following article is excerpted from the 1 November 2004 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

The United States will grant truckers a temporary reprieve from new security rules that could have turned back hundreds of shipments at the Canadian border.

As of Nov. 15, drivers hauling Border Release Advance Screening and Selectivity (BRASS) shipments, primarily automotive imports, from Canada each day were to have identification cards issued under the binational Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program that pre-clears trucks for cross-border entry. Without the card, the trucks would be barred from entering the United States under tough new rules established by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

But a U.S. Customs official told a meeting of Canadian traders that truckers will be given a grace period likely to last several weeks.

The agency's mandatory electronic reporting system goes into effect Nov. 15 at the 40 busiest U.S. border crossings with Canada and Mexico.

Shippers had expressed concern about their U.S.-bound cargo, since hundreds of eligible truckers have yet to obtain the new identification cards.

There will be an "informed compliance" period of several weeks followed by "enforced compliance," where trucks could be turned away. He did not specify the exact length of the
grace period. Industry sources say it takes U.S. Customs six to eight weeks to process a driver's security application.

Sandra Scott, director of international relations for Yellow Roadway Corp., the largest  less-than-truckload carrier in the U.S., which operates subsidiaries in Canada, and who sits on advisory bodies to Customs, said, "They say six weeks but they are very far behind."

Scott also said that a rule requiring advance reporting through a broker, designed to get shipment data to Customs one hour prior to a truck's arrival at the border, will also enjoy a grace period prior to full enforcement.

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