CSA – Customs self assessment

…has been around for many years.

It’s considered “CBSA’s” premier partnering program and is heavily invested by the Federal Govt. 30% of Entry Data is currently being processed through CSA.

CSA Benefits:

• Simplified release at land borders with just 3 bar codes
• No ACI or eManifest data is required from the importer or trucker
• Payment period to Customs increased from 5 days to 18-42 days
• Importers using CSA are considered a “Trusted Trader”
• Shipments will have access to the four major FAST lanes provided that you are also PIP certified and that your carrier is FAST approved
• Non US shipments can still be reported for under CSA, even though they don’t qualify for clearance.

How to apply:

Complete the two part application (Part I and II). The Part I is fairly straightforward. The Part II is an extensive project plan of how you do business today and how you plan to participate in the program. It will take anywhere from 6 months to a couple of years to obtain final approval from CBSA.

Review our website for more information.

Requirements before deciding to make the move to CSA :

• Are a resident of Canada
• Have been actively importing for two years or more
• Are without contraband or major commercial infractions

ACI – Advance Commercial Information (eManifest)

This is a NEW commercial system that will force carriers to transmit 24 data elements to CBSA at least 1 hour prior to arriving at the border. Today is an entirely paper-based process. Once CBSA receives the appropriate data from the carrier, they will approve the shipment and the driver may proceed to the border.

Keep in mind that shipments that are loaded less than 1 hour before crossing the border will have to wait and could be a problem.

Implementation Schedule

CBSA is scheduled to offer eManifest portal transmission options in early 2011. They have set an 18 month implementation timeline for all highway carriers to transmit cargo and conveyance data once the portal is available.

eManifest could become a requirement for importers as early as mid-2012!

So what do you do?

CSA is definitely the preferred option and have substantial supply chain and financial benefits. It is definitely the preferred long-term solution. The application process requires corporate commitment and even some financial investment in enterprise systems and integration to CBSA.

ACI will definitely have an impact on your current costs. You will probably pay more, so the benefits of CSA are even greater over ACI. This is why MEPS is dedicated to assisting Customers with becoming a CSA approved importer.

That’s where MEPS comes in. We assist our clients with all parts of the application process, as well as offering a best-in-class web portal to manage your data. We have integrated many different Enterprise Systems (MS Dynamics GP, SAP, Peoplesoft, Oracle, Epicor…) to our platform with great success.

On average, our Clients reduce their importation costs by as much as 40% with CSA!

Given the time it takes to apply and get approved for CSA, we recommend you ACT NOW to review your options.

Contact us to determine if CSA is right for you.

by Andrew King : Mercury E-Portal Solutions

So I promised to share some tidbits about the new 3.0 release coming soon. Well one of our mandates has always been to streamline the user experience and simplify terminology. In the past we accomplished this with an abundant amount of dynamic reference fields for any transaction.

Our users love this feature, but they always want more.

So our development team has delivered and  taken that concept one step further to design languages by customer. This handy new feature will allow you to configure every field on a screen to better match your in-house terminology, regardless if it’s a reference or other field.

Now you can finally toss that Customs to English dictionary.

Until next time…

Did you know the percentage of misclassified imported items is over 60%?

With this huge inaccuracy there is an opportunity for an importer to recover duty paid in error.

Duty recovery audits are just one of the specialty services we offer and is a great start to implementing a customs compliance strategy.

You start off saving money right away with no investment of capital and very little resource, which can then be used to fund implementing other customs programs.

Our auditors are Customs experts ready to save you money and prepare your business for Trusted Trader programs like Partners In Protection (PIP) and Customs Self Assessment (CSA).

Contacy us now to start your project.

MEPS understands your desire to utilize the many benefits of the Trusted Trader, Customs Self Assessment program, without the cost and time commitment concerns that usually go with implementing such a system.

Based on our expertise in the industry, combined with our industry leading proprietary software and our rapid Implementation Methodology, we can provide a solution that will meet your immediate and future needs as you continue to grow.

Until now, a complete CSA solution has been largely out of the reach of growing businesses. we are able to offer growing businesses a feature rich solution that successful mid-sized and growing small businesses can afford.

Contact us now to start your project.

www.meps.ca

Customs have published another Trade Compliance brochure that provides some guidance to importers and exporters to meet all the requirements involved with moving goods across the Canadian Border. It is a good overview and something management should read to understand the obligations companies have under the Customs Act and other Government Agencies. In addition to this CBSA also discusses some benefits for compliant companies that will save your company money with programs like Customs Self Assessment (CSA) and Free and Secure Trade (FAST). There are additional links to other useful information sites in this brochure. Bottom line – it pays to be compliant.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5108-eng.html

Well we have more updates from CBSA on the ACI/e-manifest timelines. Importers have some breathing room. However it has been my experience that process change projects are often discussed in years as opposed to months. This is particularly true for mission critical importers. So while CBSA is saying 2012 for importers to be compliant with e-manifest anyone considering CSA in this category should be exploring their options today. It is our opinion that CSA is a more business friendly and cost effective process for importers. Check out this brochure PDF (refer to attached brochure) and compare the CSA environment. I’m sure you will come to the same conclusion.