In September, Canada will begin phasing in the third stage of its Advance Commercial Information for motor carriers.
Canada Border Services Agency’s eManifest will require trade community members to electronically submit trade information to the CBSA at least an hour before their shipment’s arrival in Canada. The agency’s goal is to identify health, safety and security threats in commercial goods.
The eManifest Portal was developed mainly for small- to medium-sized enterprises to ease the transition from paper reporting to pre-arrival electronic data transmission.
Once fully implemented, eManifest will require trade partners for all transportation modes to electronically provide cargo, conveyance, crew/passenger, secondary and importer data to the CBSA before arrival at the border.
Starting Sept. 1, release requests must be transmitted to the CBSA electronically if the total number of invoice lines is 250 or fewer. By February 2012, release requests must be made electronically if the total number of invoice lines is 500 or fewer.
Finally, by 2012, release requests must be transmitted electronically if the total number of invoice lines is 999 or fewer.
The international trade services company, eCustoms, said ACIT is similar to the Automated Commercial Environment, used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
More information is available by calling (888) 957-7224 or visiting the CBSA website here.
