"Passage of this resolution sends a clear message to the Canadian and Mexican governments that the duty disparity unfairly disadvantages American businesses and must be corrected," said Senator Collins. "The discrepancy in personal exemption allowances gives an enormous competitive advantage to the Canadian and Mexican retailers in border communities. This is an issue we need to resolve."
Collins's resolution puts the Senate on record in urging the Secretary of the Treasury and the United States Trade Representative to continue discussions with officials of the Governments of Mexico and Canada to achieve parity with respect to the personal exemption allowance structure.
Americans traveling to Canada can return to the U.S. with significantly more merchandise than Canadians who visit the U.S.. For example, a Canadian citizen is given no duty-free personal exemption allowance for trips under 24 hours and Canadian Customs is instructed to begin collecting duties and taxes on merchandise as long as it can collet three Canadian dollars.
Senator Collins has long been working to correct this inequity. Most recently she met with ten members of Canada's Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to discuss the issue. Late last month, she secured an acknowledgment from Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Manley that the issue needs to be resolved. In addition, in August 2002 Senator Collins brought two top Treasury officials to Maine to hear from Maine citizens in border communities affected by this problem. Currently, Treasury officials are negotiating with Canada to resolve the problem.
The resolution enjoys support from a bipartisan group of Senators including Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Pete Domenici (R-NM).