St Croix River Nearly Gets TRnl

The shad of the St Croix River on far eastern US/Canad border nearly got free copies of TRnl#42, rather than IBTTA conferees in Halifax NS. Canada Customs held us at the Calais ME/St Stephens NB border crossing on the St Croix River bridge for 90mins examining the arcane regulations for charging customs duties on sample copies. At first they wanted to charge us 7% of $4000, their estimate of the face value of the samples. Faced with a $280 bill we thought of tossing two boxes of TRnl in the fastflowing river. It took phone calls to Ottawa to get authority to lower the basis of customs charges from face value to cost. On that basis the duty was $12 versus $280 at which point we were reaching for the wallet to proffer our cash, but were told there was still about half an hour’s form filling to be done. At which point the eminently sensible customs official said with a slight smile: “I don’t think the C$17 ($12) is really worth all that paperwork, do you?”

It was a kind gesture. But 90mins was gone. So much for the much vaunted NAFTA!