<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<H1 class="storyHed headline"><FONT face="Times New Roman">NAFTA to blame for
Canadians canceling Maine cycling tour, officials say</FONT></H1>
<DIV><A
title=http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/07/news/midcoast/nafta-to-blame-for-canadians-canceling-maine-cycling-tour-officials-say/
href="http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/07/news/midcoast/nafta-to-blame-for-canadians-canceling-maine-cycling-tour-officials-say/">http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/07/news/midcoast/nafta-to-blame-for-canadians-canceling-maine-cycling-tour-officials-say/</A>
Posted March 07, 2013, at 7:08 p.m. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>BELFAST, Maine — Local and state officials who had been mystified by a
Canadian cycling group’s sudden decision to cancel a major summer tour in Maine
learned Thursday afternoon that the group is pulling out because of provisions
of the North American Free Trade Agreement.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>During an hourlong conference call, representatives of Maine’s
congressional delegation, state government, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and Velo Quebec discussed the problems the
Canadian group is having and tried to iron out a solution, according to Willy
Ritch of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s office.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“Everybody on the call was impressed by how well thought out and organized
Velo Quebec is. They would bring in a lot of visitors and a lot of money to the
state of Maine,” Ritch said. “I believe that everybody wants this tour to happen
— but it’s a matter of figuring out a way to do this under the confines of the
law.”</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>He said that Velo Quebec representatives explained during the conference
call that NAFTA would require a tour such as the one proposed for this summer to
start in one country and have participants cross the border together. Because of
the size of the 2,000-person bike tour, it is not possible for the nonprofit
cycling group to take all participants across the border to Waterville, where
the 600-mile loop tour of Maine was to have started, Ritch said. If the company
does not bring all the people over together, its 100 or so employees working
with the group would have to get work permits for the week in the United
States.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“What they indicated on the call was that it was prohibitively expensive
and logistically too complicated to bring all the people across the border to
Waterville to start the trip,” he said.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The BDN’s efforts to speak with a U.S. Customs official about the issue
this week have been unsuccessful.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Velo Quebec officials two weeks ago had to make the decision to cancel the
group’s planned 2013 Grand Tour Desjardins in Maine and move it to Ontario,
Alain Gascon, event coordinator with the group, told the BDN on Wednesday in a
telephone call from Montreal.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If the tour had taken place as planned, the cyclists would have started
their ride in Waterville and traveled to Bangor, Bar Harbor, Belfast and
Damariscotta before returning to Waterville. According to the Bicycle Coalition
of Maine, there has never been a seven-day ride in Maine this large and it would
have been the first time Velo Quebec has done a Maine ride.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“The situation is very complicated,” Gascon said, adding that Velo Quebec
is still interested in finding a way to bring a grand tour to Maine in
2015.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The organization began working with the American Consulate in Montreal last
September, searching for a solution to the problem, but without success, Gascon
said. After the BDN reported Wednesday that the group was canceling the summer
tour in Maine, Gascon began to receive calls from politicians and others who
were eager to try to make it work. That’s when the conference call was
scheduled.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Mark Ishkanian of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, who also participated in
the conference call, said that when Velo Quebec successfully staged the annual
Grand Tour Desjardins in the U.S. before, the cyclists started together in
Quebec and then crossed the border into Vermont or New York on their bicycles.
The tour also ended in Canada.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“Because of NAFTA, you can’t have a foreign company cross the border and
stage an event without getting the proper licenses and getting work permits,” he
said. “It just becomes very complicated, very quickly.”</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Maine’s isolated, wild border with Quebec, with no major cities located
close to either side, means that it would be hard to stage a loop ride in Maine
that begins in Canada, Ishkanian said. The same rules would apply to an American
organization that wanted to hold a tour in Canada, he said.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“Everybody wanted to make this happen, but it’s clear the law won’t allow
it,” he said. “I think that people are determined to make this happen, but it’s
not going to be easy.”</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ritch said that officials will keep on brainstorming.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>“None of the ideas on the call met the requirements under the law according
to Customs and Border Protection, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to
keep trying to come up with a solution,” he
said.</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>