Canada/Europe conferences charge new reporting fee

Canada/Europe conferences charge new reporting fee    The four liner conferences active in the Canada/north Europe trade plan to charge shippers a fee of $30 per bill of lading to compensate ocean carriers for the cost of processing manifest data and sending it to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA).
   The “advance cargo and conveyance reporting fee” will be charged on all containers that are electronically reported by the member lines of the Canadian North Atlantic Westbound Freight Conference, Continental Canadian Westbound Freight Conference, Canada-United Kingdom Freight Conference and Canadian Continental Eastbound Freight Conference, effective April 19.
   The introduction of the fee will coincide with the implementation by the Canadian customs authorities of the Advanced Commercial Information – Electronic Data Interchange Cargo and Conveyance Reporting rule on April 19.
   “This CCRA rule obligates carriers and freight forwarders involved in the transportation and importation of goods to Canada to electronically provide the CCRA with detailed manifest data about the cargo,” the conferences said in a joint statement. For goods in a cargo container to be loaded on board a vessel bound for Canada, the data pertaining to those goods must be transmitted electronically to CCRA at least 24 hours prior to loading the goods on board the vessel.
   The carrier members of the four Canada/north Europe conferences are Canada Maritime, Cast, Hapag-Lloyd and Orient Overseas Container Line. Atlantic Container Line withdrew from the conferences in November.