CBSA Responds to CIFFA comments on proposed eManifest regulations

OTTAWA, Ont.– In its daily bulletin, the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA) said the Canada Border Services Agency has now completed its research and analysis of all questions and comments that were received from external stakeholders regarding the Pre-Publication of the proposed eManifest regulatory amendments.

The CBSA provided a letter as the Agency’s responses to CIFFA and its members’ questions and concerns that were received in March 2014 regarding the regulatory amendments. Any questions or comments that did not pertain to the information and requirements within the regulatory amendments and the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement (RIAS) are being forwarded to the appropriate area within the CBSA.

In the letter, addressed to CIFFA and its members, the CBSA said it was committed to facilitating the movement of legitimate goods imported to Canada while maintaining a robust pre-arrival risk-assessment process that protects the health, safety and security of Canadians.

“In order to accurately identify high-risk commercial goods and facilitate the free flow of low-risk commercial goods, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) must ensure that it receives the right information from the right party at the right time. To this end, the CBSA must ensure that it knows, at all times, with whom it is doing business. The eManifest regulatory amendments support this important public safety, national security and trade facilitation objectives in a balanced manner. The eManifest regulatory amendments also seek to reduce the costs and delays associated with the customs clearance of commercial goods. The amendments also support the efforts of the CBSA to harmonize its Advance Commercial Information (ACI) requirements in all modes of transportation with those of the US-Custom Border Protection, and are consistent with the Protocol of Amendments to the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (the “Revised Kyoto Convention”) of the World Customs Organization,” said the CBSA. 

CIFFA’s comments to the CBSA, voiced in a March 2014 letter, centered around the following issues:

-foreign freight forwarders’ eligibility to apply for and hold a carrier code to transmit secondary data; foreign freight forwarder bond requirements; 

-concern that freight forwarders would not have the “list of all secondary cargo control numbers on board the conveyance” and would therefore be unable to provide this data.

-concerns that supplementary data (Schedule 2, Part 1.1 and Part 2.1) should not be submitted by freight forwarders and instead should be the responsibility of the carrier

The CBSA’s responses to CIFFA’s areas of concern can be found here.