Évaluation des retombées économiques des frais et redevances perçus à la frontière sur trois secteurs économiques au Canada et aux États-Unis d’Amérique.

Objective

The objective of this contract is to assess the economic impact of border fees and charges on the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts manufacturing, plastic product manufacturing and vegetable and melon farming industries in Canada and the United States of America. This includes examining the cumulative effect of these fees and charges on key economic variables such as sales, outputs and exports. The assessment will be made on the basis of quantitative analysis completed using such methods as economic modeling (such as econometric or computable general equilibrium), and complemented by qualitative analysis obtained through such methods as industry interviews. It is anticipated that the findings of this contract will be published in a joint Canada-U.S. report on border fees and charges that will be made available to the public; the assessment itself may also be made publicly available.

Background

In December 2011, the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States of America released the Perimeter Security and Economic Competiveness Action Plan. This Action Plan outlines specific initiatives that will implement a long-term Canada-U.S. partnership built upon a perimeter approach to security and economic competitiveness. This partnership was established by both leaders in February 2011 in the joint Canada-U.S. declaration Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competiveness.

The Action Plan recognizes that the free flow of goods and services between Canada and the U.S. creates economic benefits for both countries. As such, it includes a numbers of initiatives related to trade facilitation, economic growth and jobs. One of these initiatives is a commitment to “[b]ring greater public transparency and accountability to the application of border fees and charges, with a view to reducing costs to business and promoting trade competitiveness”. Public Safety Canada and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are responsible for delivering on this initiative. The initiative includes two action items:

1. Develop for each country an inventory of fees and charges at the border which sets out their purpose and legal basis, how they are collected, how much is collected, their intended use and the rationale for collecting them at the border; and

2. Commission a third party to conduct an economic impact assessment of such fees, including their cumulative effect, on the competitive position of three economic sectors in Canada and the United States for which cross-border activity is important.

Based on this work, the Project Authority will produce and publish a joint report on border fees, setting out the inventory of fees in each country and the results of the economic impact assessment of the three sectors, which will be made publicly available.

To implement this Action Item, Public Safety and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have developed inventories of Canadian and American border fees respectively. These inventories set out the purpose and legal basis of the fees and charges, how the fee is collected and the intended use and rationale for collecting the fees. They include data on the total revenue each Government received for each fee in 2010-2011 and how much of this revenue can be attributed to Canada-U.S. border activities. Some of these totals have been estimated using publicly reported revenue data and shipment and trade data.

The Canadian inventory can be found at the following web link:

http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/brdr-strtgs/bynd-th…

The U.S. inventory can be found at the following web link:

http://cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/highlights/b…

The inventories are trade-focused and include transactional fees and charges on the movement of goods, not people, across the Canada-U.S. border. They include fees and charges that are:

• Applied to the entry of goods into the country;
• Mandatory to the entry of goods, regardless of when or where the fee is collected;
• Established by legal authority (a law, regulation, or statutory authority); and
• Administered by a department or agency of either federal government.

Some of the fees or charges in the inventories are specific to the shipment of certain commodities across the Canada-U.S. border while, in other cases, the fees or charges are applied more generally to all shipments crossing the Canada-U.S. border. In addition the application of some of the fees or charges may depend on the point of origin and/or destination of the shipment.

The inventories do not include the following fees or charges:

• Customs duties, tariff rate quotas, or excise taxes;
• Fees applied to the entry of services, people as service providers, people as travelers, or people for immigration purposes;
• Fees collected by a provincial, territorial, state, or municipal order of government;
• Fees collected solely by private entities;
• Non-transactional fees (such as brokerage and warehouse fees ); or
• Voluntary fees (such as fees paid to enroll in the trusted trader programs).

An assessment of the economic impacts of these fees is not within the scope of this project.

To support the development of the Canadian inventory, Public Safety awarded a contracted for the development of a potential inventory of a Canadian border fees and charges that will be shared with the contractor. In order to ensure that there is no potential unfair advantage, the Contractor named in the previous contract is precluded from bidding on this RFP.

Public Safety seeks the provision of professional services to assess the economic impact of border fees and charges included in the inventories on motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts manufacturing, plastic product manufacturing and vegetable and melon farming industries in

Canada and the United States of America. This includes assessing the cumulative effect on the competitive position of these industries, for example on key economic variables such as sales, output and exports.

The completion of this assessment will fulfill the part of the Action Plan commitment to “[b]ring greater public transparency and accountability to the application of border fees and charges, with a view to reducing costs to business and promoting trade competitiveness”. It is anticipated that the results of this assessment, along with the inventory of border fees and charges, will be published in a joint Canada-U.S. report on border fees and charges that will be made available to the public.

Scope

The study will be completed over a twenty-four week period. The study should involve the use of economic modeling (such as econometric or computable general equilibrium modeling) to estimate the broader (direct and indirect) impact of border fees on the cumulative effect on the competitive position of these industries, for example on key economic variables such as sales, output and exports. It will involve interviews with approximately three firms in each of the three sectors (motor vehicle parts manufacturing, plastic product manufacturing and vegetable and melon farming industries). The firms will be identified by the Contractor and subject to the approval of the Project Authority. The purpose of these interviews will be to obtain company specific data that will support the analysis of the impact of border fees in the Canadian and American inventories.

The sector specific analysis should highlight the different impacts, including, but not limited to, direct impacts (i.e. the cost of the fee itself) and indirect impacts (i.e. the costs associated with paying the fee).

The primary focus of the assessment will be on the economic impacts of fees that have been included in the inventories developed by the Project Authority. All analysis should be limited to the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts manufacturing, plastic product manufacturing and vegetable and melon farming industries.

Contract Period

The “Contract Period” is the entire period of time during which the Contractor is obliged to
Perform the Work, which includes:

(i) The “Contract Period”, begins on the date the Contract is awarded and ends March 31st, 2015; however, if the work in its entirety is completed and accepted at any time before March 31st, 2015, the contract shall terminate.

Evaluation Procedures:

Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the Evaluation Procedures and Criteria specified in Part 5.

(a) Bids will be assessed in accordance with the entire requirement of the bid solicitation including the technical and financial evaluation criteria.

(b) An evaluation team composed of representatives of Canada will evaluate the bids.

The evaluation team reserves the right but is not obliged to perform any of the following:

a) Seek clarification or verify any or all information provided by the Bidder with respect to this RFP;

b) Contact any or all of the references supplied and to interview, at the sole costs of the Bidder, the Bidder and/or any or all of the resources proposed by the Bidder to fulfill the requirement, on 48 hours’ notice, to verify and validate any information or data submitted by the Bidder.

Contractor Selection Method is outlined in Part 5 Section 2.