This notice provides information regarding temporary measures to be put in place by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in recognition of the administrative difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures include:
The electronic submission of Duties Relief Program applications, Drawback claims, Single and Blanket B2 Adjustments and Voluntary Disclosure requests.
The World Health Organization (WHO) characterized a global outbreak of COVID-19 on March 11th, 2020.
The CBSA recognizes that the impact of this pandemic may result in difficulties mailing or delivering in-person documents to a CBSA regional office.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CBSA will, on a temporary basis only, adopt electronic procedures as outlined below to accommodate this need. At this time, the procedures will be piloted in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) only and will be re-evaluated in the coming weeks. For Duties Relief Program Applications and Drawback Claims, companies in regions other than the GTA should continue to file using existing processes (i.e. mail-in); they are not to file using the procedures outlined in the Notice.
For Single and Blanket B2 Adjustments and Voluntary Disclosure Requests, this applies to claims that would normally be physically submitted by mail to one of the CBSA GTA offices.
This Notice is available in its entirety on the Canada Border Services Agency website.