Clearit.ca's Blog on Customs Brokerage and News Updates

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has announced that the target implementation date for CARM Release 2 will be October 2023. What is CARM? The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) project is a multi-year initiative that will transform the collection of duties and taxes for goods imported into Canada, and modernize and streamline the process of importing commercial goods. The benefits of CARM ...

The Canadian Government has announced several initiatives in support of the Green Shipping Challenge, which encourages governments, ports, and companies to commit to transitioning to more environmentally sustainable methods of shipping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Shipping Challenge was organized by the U.S. and Norway as part of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27). Countries, ports, and companies made mo...

The Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (SUPPR), which bans the import, manufacture, and sale of plastic checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, ring carriers, stir sticks and straws in Canada will begin to go into effect on Dec. 20, 2022. The SUPR are part of the Government’s plan to address pollution, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and meets its target of zero plastic waste by 2030. The Regulations cover six categories ...

The Government of Canada intends to propose actions on the labelling of toxic substances in certain products including cosmetics, cleaning products, and toxic flame retardants in upholstered furniture – and it wants to hear your comments and feedback. The Notice of Intent Consultation opened Oct. 29, 2022 and will close on Jan. 12, 2023. After which, the Government will release its product labelling strategy sometime in 2023. The purpose ...

The Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) has been amended and the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA)’s policies have been modified as a result of the Budget Implementation Act (BIA) receiving royal assent. This Act brought into force several legislative, regulatory, and administrative amendments to Canada’s trade remedy framework in response to recommendations from the Steel Industry-Government Trade Remedy Working Group (SWG). These c...

Starting Nov. 1, 2022, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will resume its regular enforcement of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) requirements for the manufactured food sector. Back in 2020, the CFIA made the decision not to prioritize compliance activities associated with the SFCR, which came into affect on July 15, 2020, in recognition of the challenges faced by the industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During ...

The president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, Stephen Laskowski, is raising alarm bells over the acute shortage of truck drivers in Canada and its negative implications for the supply chain. “There is an old saying in our sector you may be familiar with, which goes back decades – if you got it a truck brought it,” said Laskowski, “But, the truth is that during the pandemic – and even still today – there are people who didn’t �...

The National Supply Chain Task Force, established earlier this year by the Ministry of Transport to identify ways to improve Canada’s supply chain, has published its final report along with 21 recommendations. The Task Force's mandate was to examine the key issues affecting Canada’s supply chain operations and then produce recommendations on how Canada can make its transportation supply chain stronger and ensure that Canadians receive affo...

Starting on Oct. 1, 2022, an excise duty or “Vape Tax” will come into effect on vaping substances that are imported into Canada with the intention of being used in vaping devices, as well as vaping substances that are manufactured in Canada. The vaping duty was first announced in the 2022 Federal Budget. As an importer, what do I have to do? If you import packaged vaping products into the Canadian duty-paid market, you must apply to ...

A tentative deal has been reached between railway unions and management, averting a freight railroad strike that had threatened to cripple US supply chains and halt the transportation of key Canadian imports and exports. The verbal agreement concluded after about 20 hours of talks between unions representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors and railroads’ labour negotiators. At one point during the negotiations, US President Joe Bid...