Canadian forwarders prepare to go paperless

   Canadian freight forwarders are working with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to test the processes for the Canadian government’s new paperless export reporting system, which is scheduled to become the only way to file this information by June 1, 2020.
   The aging Canadian Automated Export Declaration (CAED) also will be discontinued that day as the country’s forwarders and exporters shift to the Canadian Export Reporting System (CERS), the new web-based portal.
   “We’ve embraced this change,” Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Toronto-based Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA), told American Shipper. “It’s time to get this new export filing technology in place.”
   Once CERS is fully operation, CBSA will no longer accept the paper B13A export declaration. 
   About 20 CIFFA members currently are working with CBSA to test CERS. “It’s certainly a work in progress,” Rodgers said.
   “At this stage, we’re fully engaged,” he added. “We don’t foresee any major concerns.”
   CIFFA’s roughly 260 members represent 50% of the estimated total number of forwarders operating in Canada, but they account for 90% of the industry’s employment and 90% of overall container traffic, Rodgers said.
   In addition to CERS, Canadian forwarders and exporters have access to the G7-Electronic Data Interchange to file their export details with CBSA. G7-EDI provides a direct link to CBSA’s Accelerated Commercial Release Operations Support System (ACROSS). However, this filing method is not widely used by the forwarding industry, Rodgers said.
   Since CERS is web-based, it requires no installation of software. CERS also provides the benefit of allowing filers to submit their electronic export declarations in bulk to CBSA.
   CBSA said in a notice that forwarders and exporters currently using CAED will receive letters with information about how to activate their CERS accounts between February and June. Exporters also will be able to register for CERS once it’s in place on March 16, the agency said.
   The required export declaration submission times will remain the same in CERS: two hours prior to delivery at the post office for mailing; immediately before leaving the country over the highway; two hours before loading on an aircraft for air transport; 48 hours before goods are loaded on a vessel for ocean transport; and two hours before the goods are loaded onto a railcar for rail transport.
   Under the Customs Act, Canada requires an export declaration for all commercial goods leaving the country, with the exception of exports to the U.S., exports valued at less than CA$2,000 that do not require a permit or personal effect shipments that are not for resale.
   “If the goods being exported require a permit, the paper copy of the electronic export declaration submission and the permit issued by the other government department (OGD) must be presented at the place specified in the permit authorizing the exportation or, if no place is specified, at the CBSA export reporting office closest to the place of exit of the goods from Canada,” CBSA said. “This is a regulatory requirement that remains unchanged.”