Border crossing to get even more difficult: trucking association

Shipping Canadian exports to the U.S. is going to get a whole lot more difficult thanks to the new pre-notification regulations, says Canadian Trucking Alliance CEO David Bradley.
Bradley made the remark in response to the latest announcement from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introducing final rules for mandatory electronic pre-notification of manifest data for all cargo shipments to the U.S.
While the regulations have yet to be published in the Federal Register, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, last week revealed the content of the new rules sent to the U.S Congress for approval.
According to Bradley, “the goals of the new measures improved security and trade facilitation through the elimination of paper-based customs procedures and automated pre-screening and risk assessment — are laudable.”
But the trucking industry is very concerned over the cost of the measures, and the ability of government to effectively manage the new system.. There are also very real concerns over what impact these pre-notification rules will have on just-in-time shipments.
According to Bradley, the new rules “are better than earlier drafts, but still add to the increasing complexity and cost of crossing the border.
“The earlier versions of the rules would definitely have ground just-in-time shipments to a halt. The new rules may not halt J-I-T shipments, but they could disrupt them and the potential is there for mass confusion at the busiest border crossings at least in the short-term. What normally would take years to plan and implement is now occurring in a matter of months.”
Moreover, different U.S. government agencies are “bumping into each other trying to implement overlapping programs,” said Bradley. Notably, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced its own electronic pre-notification rules, which come into force Dec. 12 with different time periods and systems than the Homeland Security rules.
Manifest information that will need to be transmitted to the U.S. Customs & Border Protection agency under DHS rules includes: conveyance/equipment number; carrier identification number; trip/freight bill/pro bill number; container/seal number; foreign origin location; scheduled date and time of arrival at first U.S. port of entry; numbers and quantities of cargo as contained in bills of lading; weight of the cargo; precise description of the cargo; internationally recognized hazardous material code; complete shipper and consignee name/address/identification number.
Not all ports will be ready to implement the rules at the same time. Once a port is ready and official notice given, truckers will have 90 days to comply.
Follow this link to Customs site where the final rules are available:
http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/import/communications_to_industry/advance_info/