CBSA System Outages, Interim Measures and Issuance of ACI Penalties to Highway Carriers

The following is available in its entirety on the Canada Border Services Agency website.

CN 17-19, System Outages, Interim Measures and Issuance of ACI Penalties to Highway Carriers

The Advance Commercial Information (ACI)/eManifest requirements for highway carriers have been mandatory since January 11, 2016 and carriers who do not comply with eManifest requirements may be issued Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMP).

Due to recent system instability, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) will allow for a 90 day evaluation period beginning on May 29, 2017 as an interim measure that should further assist highway carriers in complying with the ACI requirements and provide an opportunity to take corrective action.  The evaluation period will end at midnight August 26, 2017.

During the evaluation period, the CBSA will allow drivers in the highway mode (whether or not there is an outage) who arrive without ACI to return voluntarily to the United States to await transmission of both their conveyance and cargo information.  No ACI penalties will be issued where a carrier returns to the United States.

During the evaluation period, the CBSA requests that highway carriers apply full due diligence to transmit ACI cargo and conveyance reports that are true, accurate and complete.

Where a carrier is provided an opportunity to return but chooses not to, or it is outside an outage period, penalties C378, C379 and C382 may be applied.  The three penalties are:

C378 - Person failed to submit the prescribed pre-load/pre-arrival information relating to their cargo and/or conveyance

C379 - Person failed to submit advance information in the prescribed time or prescribed manner to the Agency

C382 - Person submitted information prescribed by the Reporting of Imported Goods Regulations that was not true, accurate and complete

The CBSA will monitor the frequency of returns, and may contact carriers who continue to be non-compliant to provide outreach to improve compliance.

For additional information regarding this Customs Notice, highway carriers can communicate with: Compliance_Monitoring.Verification_de_Conformite@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca