Canadian horse owners could be frustrated by new regulations for hauling their livestock and feed into the United States unless they understand what the rules mean to them.
“Don’t plan to be crossing the border in the last minute,” advises Vel Evans, equine identification project consultant with Equine Canada.
“There will likely be confusion crossing the border into the States this year.”
Evans told the annual meeting of the Manitoba Quarter Horse Association held March 5 in Brandon that two regulations could be particularly challenging. One deals with shipping feed into the U.S while the other involves a new system to clear horses through U.S. customs, particularly those being permanently exported.
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Exporters of livestock feed now need to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a number that will be assigned to their feed shipments. More ingredient information will be needed when shipments are made.
It appears the regulations will cover products as basic as hay.
Horse owners will typically be exempt from the rules if they are travelling into the U.S. for an equine event and are carrying feed only for their own horses, Evans said. However, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Foreign Affairs have cautioned that hassles could arise if the feed is transported separately from the truck and trailer that is hauling the horses.
“They said, ‘try to make sure the feed is travelling with the horses.’ “
Meanwhile, horse exporters need to be aware of what Evans described as the pre-arrival processing system. In a nutshell, it means electronically pre-filing export documents with U.S. Customs. Evans advised doing that no less than four hours before the horses arrive at a customs port.
From what Equine Canada has determined, the regulation will apply only to permanent exports. It should not affect people who send horses into the U.S. for a temporary stay.
Shippers of permanent exports will need a standard carrier code to take part in the pre-arrival processing system. The code number, unique for each carrier, will be printed on bar-coded stickers that can then be attached to transport manifests and import certificates.
“It will mean that you will have to have a U.S. customs broker at the other side because these documents have to be filed electronically before the shipment gets to the border,” Evans said.
“The only people who are set up to electronically pre-file are U.S. customs brokers.
“There’s no screwing around on this,” she said.
“(If) you show up at the U.S. border and you haven’t pre-filed and you’re one of the people who should pre-file, you’re potentially subject to a $5,000 fine.”
When pre-filing, the exporter will need to indicate which U.S. port of entry the shipment will be routed through. U.S. customs will allow the shipment to cross only at the entry point indicated in the pre-filing application.
“You can’t just decide you’re crossing at some other border crossing down the road,” Evans said.
Ron Rothwell, a horse breeder at Miami, Man., said the pre-arrival processing appears to be straightforward. She sells horses into the U.S. and was preparing last week to send a shipment across through that system.
“It’s supposed to speed up the process,” said Rothwell, whose family owns Rocking R Ranch Quarter Horses and Paints. “We’ll see the first time we go across.”
His greater concern, he said, is whether the process will frustrate Americans who buy horses from Manitoba.
“I don’t know whether this is going to affect our sales up here or not.”
As well, Evans said American horse owners, riders and trainers who attend equine events in Canada this year also need to be given the heads up because they could encounter snags when trying to return home with their horses.
She said Ottawa intends to implement regulations that match those of the U.S. within two years.
