Mandatory Electronic Pre-Filing for all Canada-Bound Shipments

U.S. businesses that ship to Canada have a new word to add to their customs compliance vocabulary list. That word is eManifest, and it refers to the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) newest customs compliance mandate. eManifest (electronic manifest) became mandatory in July 2015, and it essentially requires that shipment and conveyance information be electronically transmitted to the CBSA prior to a shipment’s arrival at the Canadian border.

As the CBSA described the initiative in its eManifest regulatory impact statement: “It is an ongoing challenge for the CBSA to deliver consistently on both the security and facilitation aspects of its mandate while facing an increase in volume of commercial goods coming into Canada. The CBSA must ensure that costs and delays associated with clearance processes on legitimate shipments are minimized while also identifying and mitigating threats to national health, safety, security, and prosperity.”

“To meet this challenge, the CBSA relies on a risk-based, intelligence-driven approach, concentrating its efforts on commercial goods of high or unknown risk while facilitating the entry into Canada of goods deemed to be low risk.”