Tax & Trade Blog

Over the past several months, Global Affairs Canada has been in the process of consultingwith Canadians on the operation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (“CUSMA” – also known in the US as the “USMCA”) ahead of the first joint review of the agreement set to take place in 2026.

As we have previously blogged about here, CUSMA is the current iteration in a history of “free trade” agreements between Canada, the United States and Mexico, and it includes built-in formal six-year joint reviews between its member nations to consider improvements and possible extensions. 

As we have previously written about here and here, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) has been in the process of rolling out their “CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management” (CARM) project. 

Despite recent concerns over more delays, the scheduled CARM cutover period is now underway and the full functionality of the CARM Client Portal is set to be released on October 21, 2024.

On October 7, 2024, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (the “CITT”) issued a notice that it was beginning an expiry review in respect of certain hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from the Republic of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania (the “Subject Goods”).  On October 8, 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (the “CBSA”) similarly gave notice of the initiation of their parallel expiry review investigation.

More details on the technical definition of the Subject Goods can be found here.

As we have previously written about here, the CRA has been modernizing its electronic services.  As part of these changes, the CRA has updated the GST/HST e-filing returns to require additional lines of detail.  Businesses e-filing their GST/HST returns need to understand this new change and complete their GST/HST e-filing returns properly!

As of May 13, 2024, registrants e-filing their GST/HST returns have been encountering the new forms, and the CRA reminded registrants of the change in its Excise GST/HST News – No. 117. 

Those who previously filed paper returns will immediately recognize these additional details as lines from the paper returns which have now been migrated over to the e-filing system.

On July 18, 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) issued a Notice of Conclusion of its investigation in the ongoing Expiry Review of certain Carbon Steel Welded Pipe 1 (“CSWP-1”) originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China (the “Subject Goods”).  

The CBSA determined that the expiry of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal’s (“CITT”) order dated March 28, 2019, in Expiry Review No. RR-2018-001 is likely to result in the continuation or resumption of (i) dumping of the Subject Goods and (ii) subsidizing of the Subject Goods.

More detail, including a full definition of the Subject Goods can be found in the Statement of Reasons for the determination.

Recently we’ve noticed an uptick in the number of Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) audits regarding the tariff classification of gloves (see our prior blog).  With its mid-year update, the CBSA has officially upgraded this focus to a Trade Compliance Verification Priority!

This marks the third time gloves have been a “verification priority” having previously been in the spotlight in 2017 and 2019.  The results from the first two rounds revealed that 82% of the 49 companies targeted were non-compliant, resulting in reclassification duties and penalties totalling over $2.6 million.