Blog Posts

What is CARM?

The CBSA’s Customs Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) project is a multi-year initiative that will transform the collection of tax and duty for goods imported into Canada.

What is SIMA?

One of CBSA’s roles is to protect Canadian producers from unfair foreign competition. The Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) is part of that effort, specifically addressing the subsidizing and dumping of imported goods.

The timing of the three releases of the new CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) initiative are changing due to COVID-19. Please refer to our CARM webpages and to CBSA’s pages for the most current information.

CARM, the CBSA’s Customs Assessment and Revenue Management project represents some significant changes to how importers go about the business of importing.

The new SWI landscape

The Single Window Initiative means several changes for importers:

Special Notice: CBSA announced on April 21, 2020 the implementation of Release 1 has be pushed back to January 2021 (previously fall 2020) due to COVID-19.

CARM, the CBSA’s Customs Assessment and Revenue Management project introduces a suite of new online tools that will transform and streamline the process of importing commercial goods into Canada.

Wood and wood-containing products can carry and introduce harmful pests, so their import is tightly monitored in both the U.S. and Canada. Wood packaging materials are also subject to import regulation.

While the U.S. has ratified the new North American free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, the document has yet to be ratified in Canada.

The new SWI landscape

The Single Window Initiative means several changes for importers:

End use tariff codes or conditional relief tariff items reduce or eliminate the rates of duty that would otherwise apply, provided that the conditions of relief imposed under the tariff item are satisfied.