BORDER CHARGES

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken an important first step in delaying rules that would require all trucks and airline passengers crossing the border from Canada to pay a fee to help pay for inspections. It should now use the additional time to search for less burdensome ways, other than inspecting every truck, to prevent diseased fruit and invasive plants from entering the United States.

In announcing the delay the department said it was doing so to allow “affected entities” to make preparations to comply with new inspection procedures. The delay is appropriate, but not for this reason.

Commercial traffic from Canada has long been exempt from U.S. rules requiring inspections of and fees from commercial conveyances and international air passengers entering this country because Canadian agricultural exports traditionally are grown in Canada and do not harbor pests or plants of concern to the United States. Because more produce from around the world is now going to Canada, the department last month said it would eliminate the Canadian exemptions beginning today.

All commercial conveyances crossing from Canada to the United States, regardless of what they were carrying, would have been subject to inspection. All would have paid a fee, and airline passengers coming into the United States from Canada were to be charged $5.

The department said repeatedly in the 18-page notice of the new rule that it needs to raise more money to cover the cost of the existing and new inspections. If the department needs more money to conduct legitimate inspections, it should use the delay to persuade Congress to appropriate the funds or develop a plan to have shippers that pose real risks cover the costs.

In a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Sen. Susan Collins noted the potential for back-ups at the border caused by additional inspections and delays in products crossing the border, which could harm businesses in the United States and Canada.

Sen. Collins, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, urged the department to consider assessing fees only on agricultural shipments and to work with programs that already provide border security.

Both are good suggestions.

The Canadian government strongly objects to the rules. One of the few cases the Department of Agriculture uses to justify the rule is the 2004 interception of Spanish oranges and Dutch peppers labeled as products of Canada. The Canadian embassy says it was never made aware of this problem, but would have worked with the United States to enforce laws against such re-labeling.

The delay gives the agriculture department time to look at this and other alternatives rather than moving ahead with an unnecessarily burdensome and broad rule.