Excerpted from Ottawa Citizen U.S. ponders $5.50 entry tax for Canadian air, marine travellers
By Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen February 17, 201
The Obama administration wants Canadians to pay to enter the United States to help ease that country’s desperate financial crunch.A proposed “passenger inspection” fee is outlined in the draft 2012 U.S. federal budget that has been sent to Congress. If adopted, the charge is expected to be levied against millions of commercial air and marine travellers from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, the only nations now exempt from the fee, and generate $110 million annually. The fee would not apply to automobile traffic.
Colin Robertson, a member of the team that negotiated the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and later helped implement the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), believes more U.S. cash grabs are coming.
“They will be looking everywhere to find money, so it wouldn’t surprise me that our exemption is being lifted,” said Robertson, a fellow of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.
“Do I think we can succeed in pushing back? Probably not given the desperate financial situation the States is in. But, obviously, we should make our best efforts.
“This is one where we should make a joint cause with Mexico. The push back (also) has to come through the airline industry and though the travel agencies in the States.”