June 16, 1998
      
     
                        Americans Want Canadian Toilets
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     Filed at 8:16 a.m. EDT
     
     By The Associated Press
      
     
     
     DETROIT (AP) -- Psst. Hey, buddy. Wanna buy a toilet?
     
     U.S. homeowners are heading into Canada to sneak around U.S.
     regulations and pick up high-capacity toilets.
     
     A U.S. conservation law that took effect in 1994 limited toilets to
     1.6 gallons (6. liters) a flush. The older toilets allowed 3.5
     gallons (13.25 liters).
     
     Plumbing suppliers in Windsor, Ontario, just across the border from
     Detroit, report they are increasingly see customers from Michigan.
     Some buy up to four toilets for remodeling projects or new homes.
     
     ``They drive back across the border from Windsor and we ask them
     what they've got in their cars,'' said Mark Hoying, a senior
     inspector at the U.S. Customs Service in Detroit. ``Some will say
     they bought a toilet, believe it or not.''
     
     The toilets are available duty-free in Canada because of the North
     American Trade Agreement.
     
     Michigan congressman Joe Knollenberg is pushing a bill to repeal the
     toilet-regulating law so that U.S. toilet manufacturers can make any
     type of commode.
     
     ``We've had an overflow of complaints about these new toilets from
     consumers,'' Knollenberg said without a grin. ``I want to give the
     consumer choices.''
     
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