Canada proposes tripling duty-free allowance

Gavin Lipsith

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A Canadian senate report has suggested increasing the allowance for citizens returning from the US as part of a security overhaul at the southern border

Returning Canadian citizens crossing the US border could be entitled to a $2,000 duty-free allowance if recommendations made in a Canadian senate report are implemented. The report, which primarily focuses on security measures at the country's southern border, claimed that increasing the allowance would allow border patrol officers to "better direct their attention to border security rather than revenue collection".

Canadians are currently allowed to carry duty-free goods worth $750 from the US if they have been outside of the country for at least a week. The senate said that it hoped the new allowance could be put into effect by 2010.

The report continued: "Canada needs a system within which personnel on the crossings are border officers first and clerks second—the reverse of the current situation."

The main proposal in the document was to allow border agents the option to carry guns, as there is no permanent presence of local police or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the US border.