Beginning Nov. 24, commercial traffic from Canada will pay agricultural inspection fees at the Canada-U.S. border, the Associated Press reports. The new will cover costs to guard against the threat of pests, disease, and bioterrorism. Commercial trucks will have to pay $5.25 per crossing or $105 for the year, aircraft $70.25, loaded rail cars $7.50 and commercial vessels $488. Graham Cooper, senior vice president of the Canadian Trucking Association, said the fees have been levied too liberally on commercial traffic, not all of which is carrying agricultural products across the border. Melissa O’Dell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Agriculture Department’s animal and plant health inspection service, said the surcharges have been around since the early 1990s, but Canada has been exempt until now. The trucking and airline industries say they are taking their concerns about the negative effects the new fees will have on their respective industries to the government, the Associated Press reports.
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