Fact Sheet

January 2009

Trade Policy Laws Administered by the CBSA

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is responsible for administering Canada's trade policy laws. In delivering its programs, the CBSA must achieve a balance between facilitating and promoting international trade and protecting Canadian businesses from unfairly traded goods. The CBSA's goal is to help increase Canada's competitiveness and prosperity through increased international trade.

Principles

The CBSA promotes positive business relationships with clients and is guided by the following principles:

• Clients must be provided with the information necessary to enable them to comply.
• Verification must be supported by a fair and flexible sanctions regime.
• Clients are entitled to fair, equitable treatment and consistent decisions.

Legislative responsibilities

The CBSA is responsible for a broad range of legislation, regulations and related programs that affect both imports and exports. The Customs Act, the Customs Tariff, the Excise Act and the Excise Tax Act are the primary acts it administers. The CBSA is also responsible for enforcing remedies against unfair trade practices under the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) -- Canada's anti-dumping and countervailing legislation -- and it plays an important role in meeting Canada's international commitments under trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement. It also administers a number of acts and regulations on behalf of other government departments and agencies.

Program responsibilities

The CBSA administers a variety of national trade programs. It is responsible for the accuracy and integrity of import trade data and it has certain programs that help protect Canadian industry from unfair trade practices. The CBSA's programs comprise tariff classification, valuation, tariff treatment (rules of origin), anti-dumping and countervailing measures, remissions, duties relief, temporary entry and Canadian goods abroad.

The CBSA's regional offices provide Canadian businesses with a wide range of products and services tailored to their needs. They also perform verifications to ensure trade compliance and a level playing field for all. These products and services include the following:

• client visits and consultations;
• forms, pamphlets and publications;
• seminars and educational programs;
• rulings and technical advice on classification, values, origin and SIMA;
• assistance and advice about the duty deferral, remissions, temporary entry and Canadian goods abroad programs;
• help correcting trade data, including the processing of refunds and drawbacks;
• audits to confirm origin requirements and entitlement to free trade preferences;
• comprehensive verifications to confirm compliance with trade requirements;
• monetary assessments where necessary to correct instances of non-compliance; and
• reviews of appeals filed to contest customs decisions.

For media information