Canada is studying several policy and legislative options to strengthen its forced labor enforcement, including one that could establish new import traceability requirements for certain goods and another that could require importers to pay all fees associated with imports detained for forced labor.
Canada’s Standing Committee on International Trade last week voted against delaying until April the implementation of the Canada Border Services Agency’s new Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system, setting up the new system to go live as planned on Oct. 21, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a message to its members. The committee, part of Canada’s House of Commons, struck down the motion 6-5, the NCBFAA said.
Canada plans to require Canadian steel importers to provide information on the country of melt and pour (COM) for imported steel at the time of importation, which will “improve the data quality” of its Steel Import Monitoring Program, it said in a recent notice. The proposal would specifically revise provisions of Canada’s General Import Permit No. 80 for Carbon Steel and the General Import Permit No. 81 for Specialty Steel Products to “require importers to provide COM information” to the Canada Border Services Agency “at the time of importation as terms and conditions of using” the permits.
Global Affairs Canada is accepting public comments until Oct. 31 on Canadians’ views on USMCA ahead of Canada’s chairing of the fifth meeting of the USMCA Free Trade Commission in 2025 and the first joint review of the trade deal by all three countries in 2026. The consultations, launched Aug 21, will “provide Canadians with an opportunity to share their views on and experiences with key areas of” the deal, the country said, “including elements of the agreement that are working well and those that can be further improved.”
Canada is seeking public feedback on an effort to modernize grades and standards for fresh fruits and vegetables, including to understand how those grades are used in the marketplace, “identify opportunities to reduce burdens on industry and support industry competitiveness,” and to understand how changing grades standards may affect traders, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report this month. The agency said the grades in Canadian requirements apply to both locally produced and imported fruits and vegetables. The country’s consultation period runs until Oct. 20.
Canada is accepting feedback as it prepares guidance for new regulations aimed at preventing companies from placing “unsubstantiated environmental claims” on imported product labels and other goods, USDA said in a report this month. Public comments on these new “greenwashing provisions” are due to Canada by Sept. 27.
The Department of Agriculture is leading an Aug. 13-15 trade mission to Bogota, Colombia, to try to expand markets for U.S. exporters, USDA said in a July 29 news release. The trade mission includes officials from the Mississippi, Wisconsin and Texas departments of agriculture along with agricultural industry officials from across the country. USDA said U.S. agricultural exports to Colombia reached a record $3.7 billion in 2023, and the country is the seventh-largest market for U.S. agricultural exports.
Canada will again impose additional temporary import requirements for U.S.-origin romaine lettuce, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report this month. The requirements, which Canada also has imposed in previous years (see 2109280034 and 2308070019), will allow Canadians to import romaine lettuce from the Salinas Valley counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey or San Benito only if the lettuce tests negative for “E. coli O157:H7.” The requirements will be in effect Sept. 26 through Dec. 28.
Canadian traders should prepare for increased scrutiny from the country’s customs agents for a range of imports in the coming months, and should consider conducting an “internal compliance review” to make sure they’re complying with all duties and trade laws, Baker McKenzie said in a July 25 client alert.
The Canadian press noted that Canada is working to convince officials that might serve in a future Trump administration to spare Canadian goods from a global 10% tariff, but former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who recently traveled to Canada, has said Canada won't necessarily be exempted.