US, UK ties hit $8 road bump on London streets

The most recent spat between the US government and its good friends in Britain may not be as serious as the Kyoto Global Warming tangle or t...

The most recent spat between the US government and its good friends in Britain may not be as serious as the Kyoto Global Warming tangle or the tiff over steel tariffs but, make no mistake about it, this disagreement is not going to be easily paved over — and it’s likely to cost both countries some money. Somewhere around $8 a day.

Tired of Central London’s streets being jammed bumper-to-bloody-bumper with drivers too lazy — or too smart — to use the subway or the city’s buses, officials here have decided that drivers inching through the heart of the city during the day must pay $8.

London’s mayor calls it a ‘‘congestion charge.’’ Employees of the US Embassy, situated in the heart of London, call it a tax and, as any student of history might guess, these Americans are not about to pay a British tax. The charge doesn’t take effect until February, but the protests have already begun. No one has dumped any cars into the Thames yet, but embassy employees claim they are exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention that prohibits taxing of diplomatic staff. Unmoved London officials say that anyone who drives to work should expect to pay up. ‘‘The Americans are not poor, and if they’re disabled and have to drive they’ll be exempt from the fee,’’ Bibi Berki, a spokeswoman for London Mayor Ken Livingstone, said.

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Fine, officials at the US Embassy told the BBC, which reported the story on Monday, but retribution could be right around the corner. British diplomats, the Americans said, shouldn’t be surprised when they face similar fees in Washington, D.C.

To officials in London — distinct from the government — charging US Embassy employees for using its roads is no different than British diplomats who pay tolls for the bridges and tunnels in the US.

About 700 people — half of them US citizens and half of them British — work at the US Embassy, and the vast majority already use public transportation. And at about $8 per car per day, the congestion charge is not about to add significantly to the American national debt. But embassy personnel contacted attorneys in Washington, and, posed a question: When is a fee a fee, they asked, and when is it a tax? Poor countries already having trouble meeting their bills in expensive London will be considered for exemption. But not employees of the US Embassy. (LATWP)