The Canada Border Services Agency has announced that its e-manifest requirements for highway and rail carriers will not be mandatory this fall, because of what the agency called “timelines associated with regulatory processes.”
Canadian customs officials said in April that they planned to make it mandatory that all rail and highway carriers bringing goods into Canada submit manifests electronically in advance of a border crossing.
Since 2010, under its eManifest program, Canada has allowed carriers to submit information electronically rather than by paper at the border.
The CBSA said in an Oct. 21 statement that the agency will keep its commitment to provide carriers at least 45 days’ notice before it makes the eManifest system mandatory in order to ensure a “smooth transition to modernized, more efficient commercial processing at Canada’s borders.”
CBSA did not say in the statement, however, what the start date would be.
“Updates regarding the status of the regulatory process will be made public when available,” the CBSA statement said.
When implemented, the eManifest system will require carriers, freight forwarders and importers in all modes of transportation, including air and marine, to electronically file advance cargo information to the CBSA within what the agency called “prescribed mode-specific timeframes.”
