This article was deemed too hot to publish by the Journal of Commerce and so ended our relationship.
As we move into the new year and things start to settle into more of a routine, one issue that simply will not go away is port congestion. There are lots of reasons for the current mess.

Canada has indicated that the Canada-U.S. border will remain closed to non-essential travel until June 21, 2020. “Non-essential” travel includes travel that is considered as tourism or recreational in nature.
Most Canadian export controls and controlled goods compliance programs are built with the assumption that relevant employees who have access to controlled goods and technical data will be working in an on-site work environment and use work computers and in-house servers where information is securely stored with access and release restrictions and where work-related activities
The Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) has published a written statement on its website that when the CBSA conducts an examination of electronic devices (e.g., laptops, smart phones, USB keys, etc.) at the Canadian border, CBSA officers must not search electronic documents marked as “solicitor-client”. The CBSA has published a webpage entitled “
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:
On March 16, 2020, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) issued
On March 19, 2020, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) released
At midnight on March 20, 2020, in an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic,