On March 26, 2020, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) notified certain importers under verification that the CBSA was temporarily suspending trade compliance activities due to COVID-19 – see The CBSA Temporarily Suspends Trade Compliance Activities due to COVID-19.

On May 19, 2020, importers received an update from the CBSA informing external stakeholders that

In normal times, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) conducts verifications (audits) of importers to ensure that they are in compliance with Canadian customs laws (e.g., origin, tariff classification, valuation, etc.).  On March 26, 2020, we received the following notification from a CBSA Trade Compliance Officer with whom we are engaged on a file:

“Due

On March 18, 2020, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) issued Customs Notice 20-09 “Changes in Requesting an Extension to the 90-day Period to Submit Corrections” in which the deadline for filing corrections is automatically extended by 30 days. Normally, when the CBSA issues a final report to an importer under audit (called a “trade

Direct sellers (also known as network sellers) enter the lucrative Canadian market, often without asking questions about whether there are any Canadian laws they should know about. Canadians sign up as independent sales contractors and start to build their sales networks before all questions are asked and answers are received about compliance with Canadian laws. 

The Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) conducts verifications (also known as audits) to verify compliance with Canadian customs laws.  Importers self-report relevant and detailed information about their imports either directly or through customs brokers.  The CBSA conducts verifications to ensure that the information is correct and that the importer has paid the correct amount of

We regularly get asked whether the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) can ask for particular documents during the course of a goods and services tax (“GST”) / harmonized sales tax (“HST”) audit or during a GST/HST appeal.  Usually, the question is in the form of a statement “they are not allowed to ask for that”. Our