Update on Canada Customs Requirements for ALL Importers

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is modernizing the way it assesses duties, etc. for all importers via the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM), which is a new digital initiative that will greatly transform how Canadian and offshore importers interact with Canada Customs. CARM will modernize and streamline the process of collecting duties and taxes, which shifts the financial liability to the importer of record. This is an entirely new approach that all importers must be aware of.

What is the CARM Client Portal – Release 2?

The CARM Client Portal Release ‘1’ was already launched on May 1, 2021, and has been available to importers, brokers, and consultants since that time. Participation in CARM, registration on the Portal and obtaining a Customs surety bond was intended to mandatory for all importers of commercial goods once Release ‘2’ goes live on May 13, 2024. However, due to a variety of factors, the CBSA has again pushed the full and final release of CARM (Release 3?) to October 2024.

The “Good news” …for now

Recently, the CBSA announced on April 19, 2024, that CARM will go live as intended on May 13, 2024, but only for internal CBSA use. The announcement suggests that “Trade Chain partners” will continue to operate as they currently do until October 2024, but will need to be fully ready to use CARM at that time.

The CBSA considers its “Trade Chain partners” as the larger trade community, including importers, brokers, couriers, service providers, and trade associations such as the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters (IE Canada), Canadian Society of Customs Brokers (CSCB), among others. Many of these stakeholders have had extensive involvement in the nearly 100 working group sessions with the CBSA, over the last several years.

For more details on the overall CARM story, please refer to our previous article on our website that goes into greater detail about the development and implementation of CARM and how importers should be ready for the new “hard launch” in October 2024.