Canada Says No Border Delays Caused by Customs Business Help Desk Issue
A recent change to Canada’s help desk services hasn’t caused any freight delays at the country’s border, Canada's customs agency said, disputing some points made by Canadian customs brokers in a letter to the government earlier this month.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
In that letter, the Canadian Society of Customs Brokers said a disruption involving the help desk services for customs business numbers used by Canadian importers and customs brokers is leading to delays and increased storage fees (see 2405230035). The society said the country’s revenue agency on May 13 stopped providing help desk support for importers and customs brokers for their import and export business number accounts, and CBSA was supposed to take over responsibility for those numbers through its upcoming CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system, but that system was delayed.
Although the association said this has caused delays for some of its members, including those shipping freight into Canada, CBSA said: “There have been no delays at Canada’s border due to a recent change in how import-export program (RM) account numbers are issued.”
In an email late May 24, a CBSA spokesperson said more than “80,000” businesses are “already set up in CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) RM account numbers, representing over 90% of Canada’s top importers by volume." And CBSA "allows the use of a customs broker’s import-export program account to facilitate importations by first-time or occasional importers who do not have their own account.”
The agency “strives to process RM account requests in an expedited manner,” the spokesperson said, but “the system functionality to fully automate this process will not be in place until” CARM launches in 2024. Until then, CBSA said, “only new importers who do not use their broker’s RM account are impacted. During this transition, rather than making a phone call, importers are asked to complete a PDF form first followed by a phone call.”
The Canadian Society of Customs Brokers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.