The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices for March 18 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
If the United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union in 17 days, it has a plan on what its tariff schedule will be, but John Dickerman, head of the Washington office of the Confederation of British Industries, said that there's no answer on who will be ready to take the manifest information from exporters the day after Brexit. "That's a huge challenge," he said.
The Transition Engine Annual Report (TEAR) is due on March 31 for transition engines imported or manufactured during the 2018 calendar year, Environment and Climate Change Canada said in an emailed notice. "The purpose of this notice is to raise awareness amongst customs brokers and their clients (importers of off-road diesel engines)" of the deadline, the agency said. "If you import transition engines or machines containing a transition engine into Canada, or are a Canadian manufacturer of transition engines or machines containing a transition engine, you must submit" a TEAR, the agency said in an attached presentation.
CBP would like even more public feedback on how to modernize the agency's processes and regulations, CBP said in a notice. CBP said it is reopening the comment period until April 11 to allow for new input after it held a March 1 meeting to discuss a wide range of ideas for updates. The March 1 meeting included few mentions of exports, but the docket of the original request for comments includes multiple suggestions and criticisms on the export side.
As part of its Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, the Philippines’ Department of Finance has created post clearance audit functions for the country's Bureau of Customs and announced a new prior disclosure program, which allows companies to minimize their penalties for errors and omissions on import documentation, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers alert. Post-clearance audits can include audits of importers, customs brokers, agents and “all other parties engaged in the customs clearance and processing functions,” according to the notice. Auditors can also review all export- and import-related records “required to be kept by law,” the notice said. The prior disclosure program, the notice said, allows the Philippines’ Bureau of Customs commissioner to consider previous disclosures of errors and omissions in goods declarations by importers “as a potential mitigating factor in determining penalties.” All disclosures must contain "the errors and payment of deficient amounts of duties, taxes and penalties."
Failure to provide the Canada Border Services Agency with proof of origin upon request, corrections to origin declarations, or reports of diverted goods are among customs compliance violations that will face steeper penalties starting in April, the CBSA said in a March 5 notice. The CBSA previously said it planned to increase the Administrative Monetary Penalties for trade compliance violations (see 1903040034), but had not provided details on the changes.
Mexico’s Tax Administration Service’s legal support office recently clarified that, for advance clearance ocean shipments, the identifiers “DA” and “FR” should be declared to SAT, the Latin American Confederation of Customs Brokers (CLAA) said in a March 1 circular to its members. That last identifier is for operations for which the exchange rate date is prior to arrival, which is the case for advance clearance shipments because SAT requires advance duty payment, CLAA said.