The federal government’s decision to start charging user fees on vehicles bringing food from Canada is good news for domestic producers.

But the president of the Niagara County Farm Bureau is not jumping for joy yet.

“It can’t hurt,” Paul S. Bencal said last month. “I don’t want to downplay it. I guess I’d say talk to me in a year. Let’s see what happens.”

Bencal was reacting to the May 30 announcement that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Department of Homeland Security will now enforce user fees on all commercial trucks and railroad cars coming down from Canada.

The decision ended an exemption for Canadian-grown fruits and vegetables, according to an APHIS news release. Now commercial trucks will pay an agricultural quarantine and inspection fee of $5.25 per entry. Commercial railroad cars will pay $7.75 per entry.

Commercial vessels of 100 net tons or more will pay $490 per entry, and commercial aircraft will pay $70.50 per arrival.

Not much, Bencal points out, but it is a start. “The fees and everything they charge on these things are really ridiculously low,” he said. “It just seems like a token amount to me. It’s not really supposed to be a deterrent; it seems to me that’s not the intent.”

Anything that levels the playing field is a positive. Bencal points out that Canadian produce has cut into the market for products produced in Western New York.

On the other hand, he wonders what reprisals might follow from our neighbors to the north. “There are import fees we have to pay for products going out of the country and I can’t see Canada letting this go by without doing something,” Bencal said.

As Bencal notes, the APHIS fees are not a tariff and not meant to deter trade. They are user fees that will, in theory, pay for inspections on organic material entering the United States.

“Recent inspections along the U.S.- Canada border resulted in numerous interceptions of prohibited fruits and vegetables, originating from regions other than Canada,” the agency’s news release read.

“These products pose a risk of introducing plant pests into the United States.”

“APHIS is also concerned about agricultural and other products originating in Canada that could serve as host material for pests and diseases if left uninspected.” Bencal said he hopes the change leads to more rigorous inspections of trucks crossing the border.

“One of our biggest issues up here next to the border is how little really gets inspected at all,” he said. “It’s less than one percent. That’s been our issue on both borders.”

Bencal said that in his experience, the morale of border agents is low. Until that problem is addressed, he is afraid border crossings will continue to be more about checking forms than checking for pests.

“Time will tell,” he said. “What I’d like to do is enhance the incentive for agents to actually physically inspect a vehicle, not just check the paperwork.”

“We’ll see if this helps.”