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Importers consider Canada's Customs Self Assessment program too onerous. Carriers are reluctant to join unless more importers do. Is there a workable solution?
For a program designed to simplify clearance into Canada for the nation's importers, carriers and drivers, Customs Self Assessment (CSA) has certainly gained notoriety for complexity since its inception at the tail end of 2001.
Years in the works with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the program was designed to give approved importers the benefits of a streamlined accounting and payment process for all imported goods. Participants are able to use their own business systems and processes to trigger trade data and revenue reporting. It was also designed to give approved importers, carriers and drivers the benefits of a streamlined clearance option for CSA-eligible goods by eliminating the need for transactional transmissions of data in favor of clearance of goods based on the identification of the approved importer, carrier and registered driver.
Many importers and carriers, however, have felt that the demands for information required to be part of the program were unduly onerous. For example, the second phase of the application process requires applicants to show that their business processes, as well as their books and records, have the necessary linkages, controls and audit trails to support CSA requirements.
"We were asked to provide information on all the loads we moved in a seven-day period, but we're talking well over two million loads," one frustrated carrier told CBSA representatives during a consultation meeting earlier this year. "How do you think we're going to collect the details on that kind of information. And how do you think we're going to send it to the CSA agent examining our application? We'll have to send it by truckload - there's no way we could e-mail it."
As a result, acceptance of the program to date, particularly among importers, has been lukewarm. While 529 carriers had been CSA approved as of May 1 and 56,000 drivers had attained their required credentials, only 23 importers were part of the CSA program.
There is still trouble getting executive buy-in to the program, notes Bob Armstrong, senior vice president, government affairs for PBB Global Logistics, a firm well known for its customs brokerage expertise.
"It's not...