Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 110 Part 4.djvu/878

 110 STAT. 3009-715 PUBLIC LAW 104-208—SEPT. 30, 1996 local governments, local businesses, and any other knowledgeable persons who the Commissioner considers to be important to the completion of the study. (b) REPORT.— Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of the United States Customs Service shall submit to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and of the Senate a report on the study and review conducted under subsection (a). The report shall include recommendations for steps that the United States Government can take to help end any harassment by Canadian customs agents that is found to have occurred. SEC. 655. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DISCRIMINATORY APPLICATION OF NEW BRUNSWICK PROVINCIAL SALES TAX. (a) FINDINGS. —The Congress finds as follows: (1) In July 1993, Canadian customs officers began collecting an 11 percent New Brunswick provincial sales tax on goods purchased in the United States by New Brunswick residents, an action that has caused severe economic harm to United States businesses located in proximity to the border with New Brunswick. (2) This impediment to cross-border trade compounds the damage already done from the Canadian Government's imposition of a 7 percent tax on all goods bought by Canadians in the United States. (3) Collection of the New Brunswick provincial sales tax on goods purchased outside of New Brunswick is effected only along the United States-Canadian border, not along New Brunswick's borders with other Canadian provinces; the tax is thus being administered by Canadian authorities in a manner uniquely discriminatory to Canadians shopping in the United States. (4) In February 1994, the United States Trade Representative publicly stated an intention to seek redress from the discriminatory application of the New Brunswick provincial sales tax under the dispute resolution process in chapter 20 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but the United States Government has still not made such a claim under NAFTA procedures. (5) Initially, the United States Trade Representative argued that filing a New Brunswick provincial sales tax claim was delayed only because the dispute mechanism under NAFTA had not yet been finalized, but more than a year after such mechanism has been put in place, the claim has still not been put forward by the United States Trade Representative. (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS. —I t is the sense of the Congress that— (1) the provincial sales tax levied by the Canadian province of New Brunswick on Canadian citizens of that province who purchase goods in the United States— (A) raises questions about a possible violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the discriminatory application of the tax to cross-border trade with the United States; and (B) damages good relations between the United States and Canada; and (2) the United States Trade Representative should move forward without further delay in seeking redress under the

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