‘Established business relationship’ required for certain shipments

Air Canada Cargo is warning its customers that effective immediately, Transport Canada has mandated that cargo originating from certain countries and arriving into Canada cannot be accepted from shippers without an established business relationship with either Air Canada Cargo, their freight forwarder, their known agent or are a known consignor.

Shipments tendered to Air Canada on behalf of a freight forwarder or known agent must have the below message added to either the Master Air Waybill (MAWB) or the electronic version, e-AWB (added to the OSI line):

“These shipments originated from a shipper that has an established business relationship per Transport Canada SMIAC-Europe-Asia-29Aug2024.”

Alternatively, the shipment could be accompanied by a letter that must be dated and on company letterhead. Two letters must be submitted, one to retain on file by Air Canada and one attached to the MAWB. The letter must state the following:

“The shipments tendered, if have originated from one of the below countries, has an established business relationship with (name of consolidator/ freight forwarder/Agent) per the Transport Canada regulations SMIAC-Europe-Asia-29Aug2024.”

An established business relationship is defined by Transport Canada, as follows: 

“An active account or a documented payment history, for at least 90 days prior to the issuance of Transport Canada SMIAC-Europe-Asia-29Aug2024 (i.e. an account in existence since at least May 31, 2024) and involves a minimum of six shipments tendered within that 90-day period.”

Countries included in this mandate are:

Albania, Czech Republic, Ireland, Monaco , Slovakia, Andorra, Denmark, Italy, Montenegro, Slovenia, Armenia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Finland, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Sweden, Azerbaijan, France, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Switzerland, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Poland, Tajikistan, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Portugal, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Turkmenistan, Bulgaria, Holy See, Luxembourg, Russia, Ukraine, Croatia, Hungary, Malta, San Marino, United Kingdom, Republic of Cyprus, Iceland, Moldova, Serbia and Uzbekistan.