| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vol. 139, No. 24 — June 11, 2005 Regulations Amending the Designated Provisions (Customs) RegulationsStatutory authority Customs Act Sponsoring agency Canada Border Services Agency REGULATORY IMPACT (This statement is not part of the Regulations.) Notice The Advance Commercial Initiative (ACI), formerly known as Carrier Re-engineering, was outlined in the Customs Action Plan in 2000. It is being implemented in phases, beginning with phase 1, the marine mode (except marine shipments loaded in the United States), on April 19, 2004, followed by phase 2, the air mode and marine shipments loaded in the United States, on December 5, 2005. As there was very limited time before the announced implementation date for phase 1 of ACI, the regulatory amendments supporting that phase were publicly announced in Customs Notices N-565, on April 15, 2004, pursuant to paragraph 167.1(b) of the Customs Act. As a result, an exemption from prepublication was requested for phase 1 and the regulatory amendments published in that Notice came into effect on April 19, 2004, the date announced in the Notice. However, since there is sufficient time before the implementation of phase 2 for the processing of the proposed regulatory amendments supporting that phase, the amendments are being prepublished in the Canada Gazette so as to give interested parties the opportunity to make representations on the proposals. These amendments come within the framework of the governmental Smart Regulations initiative, as it harmonizes our standards with those of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, removes unnecessary barriers to cross border travel, adopts a risk management approach, provides a greater capacity to focus on high-risk importers and goods and reduces costs for business and government. This approach enhances our ability to detect contraband and threats to our health, safety and security. Description Under the ACI initiative, owners and persons in charge of a conveyance are required to transmit cargo and conveyance data electronically within established timeframes to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), to enable the CBSA to identify goods of unknown or high risk. The implementation of phase 2 of ACI requires amendments to two regulations made under the Customs Act:
The Reporting of Imported Goods Regulations are also being further amended to include amendments to phase 1 that were not publicly announced in Customs Notices N-565 (such as, a title added before a section and few additional data added in Annexes 1 and 2 of the Regulations). Since these amendments could not benefit from the exemption from prepublication granted with regard to the regulatory amendments supporting phase 1, they are included with the phase 2 regulatory amendments that will be prepublished in the Canada Gazette, Part I, and will come into effect on December 5, 2005. Alternatives ACI introduces more effective risk management processes and tools to identify threats to our health, safety and security, prior to the arrival of cargo and conveyances in Canada. The proposed regulatory amendments are necessary to require, in prescribed circumstances, the owner or person in charge of a conveyance involved in the transportation of goods to Canada to give advance notice of the time and place of its arrival and to provide data electronically about the conveyance and its cargo in advance of its arrival in Canada. This data will be processed through a sophisticated targeting system to assess risk and detect high-risk shipments, while allowing low-risk shipments to be cleared more quickly. The amendments are necessary to require pre-arrival transmission of cargo and conveyance data in advance of their arrival in Canada, to specify the requirements for oral reporting and to enable to the CBSA to levy penalties for non-compliance. Benefits and costs The goal of ACI is to identify shipments with higher or unknown risk prior to arrival in Canada. The pre-arrival transmission of data will allow improved targeting by the CBSA to detect high-risk shipments. It will also help the CBSA to manage the increasing volumes of transactions with other countries and will improve the quality and timeliness of data receipt and processing. It will give clients the benefit of having low-risk shipments cleared more quickly. ACI will also reduce the CBSA's costs linked to the keying of information and maximize the use of the client's systems since import, in-transit and FROB will all be sent electronically using the same format. Treasury Board funding has been secured for the implementation of the ACI and for the development of automated systems required to administer the ACI. External clients not already submitting their customs data to the CBSA host system via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) will incur costs associated with their new obligation to electronically transmit pre-arrival information. There are currently five EDI options available to them and costs vary according to the option used. It should be noted that the 20 highest volume marine carriers, comprising over 85 percent of cargo volume, had previously chosen to participate in EDI processing for their own benefits and efficiencies. Consultation Extensive consultations with the business and trade communities were undertaken throughout the conception and development of this initiative. These consultations took place in the form of meetings, presentations, and working groups with interested parties such as importers, carriers, freight forwarders, brokers and associations (e.g. the Shipping Federation, the International Airline Transport Association and the Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia). In responses to comments received, the CBSA has modified the timelines for the transmission of ACI data, and the initiative was standardized with that of the United States. The announced timeframes were the result of extensive consultations with the U.S. CBPB and all stakeholders. As part of the consultation process, the CBSA posted the following ACI Customs Notices on its Web site: — N-542 (October 7, 2003), to provide details of the initiative, including the planned implementation date of phase 1. — N-565 (April 15, 2004), to announce the regulatory amendments supporting phase 1. — N-574 (May 27, 2004), to announce the planned implementation of phase 2 on May 9, 2005. — N-605 (February 10, 2005), to identify the requirements and revised implementation date of December 5, 2005, for phase 2 and defer the rail component to phase 3. Stakeholders and members of the public were invited to comment on the initiative at each of these stages. The comments received for phase 2 were from stakeholders who indicated that they might not be in a position to comply at the time of implementation. The implementation date has been postponed to December 5, 2005. In addition, communication products, such as Questions and Answers, were also posted on the CBSA Web site in relation to this initiative. The CBSA will continue to consult with industry and work with all parties involved to ensure a smooth implementation of the next phases. Compliance and enforcement The existing resources of the CBSA are adequate to ensure that clients comply with these regulatory changes. The ACI initiative is carefully monitored and shipments may be subject to random checks to ensure compliance. Examinations of shipments and conveyance will be done based on a risk factor determined by the Canadian Automated Targeting System (TITAN). The ACI initiative contributes to more effective enforcement in the commercial streams by allowing resources to be concentrated in higher or unknown risk areas. Owners or persons in charge of a conveyance who do not comply with the requirements will be subject to penalty. Penalties will be applied under the Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS) on the basis of provisions described in the Designated Provisions (Customs) Regulations. The aforementioned Regulations are being amended to enable the CBSA to levy penalties for non-compliance with the ACI initiative. They are being amended at the same time as the Reporting of Imported Goods Regulations to ensure that the complete range of enforcement tools are available to the CBSA as expeditiously as possible. Sonia Gosselin, Senior Project Advisor, ACI Program and Policy Development, Advance Commercial Information Division, Customs Programs Strategy and Major Projects, Canada Border Services Agency, 171 Slater Street, 10th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L8, (613) 954-7077 (telephone), (613) 948-4827 (facsimile), sonia.gosselin@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca (electronic mail). Notice is hereby given that the Governor in Council, pursuant to subsection 109.1(3) (see footnote a) of the Customs Act (see footnote b), proposes to make the annexed Regulations Amending the Designated Provisions (Customs) Regulations. Interested persons may make representations with respect to the proposed Regulations within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice. All such representations must cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this notice, and be addressed to the Manager, Legislative Affairs, Canada Border Services Agency, Killeany Place, 4th Floor, Room 4023, 150 Isabella Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L8 (tel.: (613) 954-7109). Persons making representations should identify any of those representations the disclosure of which should be refused under the Access to Information Act, in particular under sections 19 and 20 of that Act, and should indicate the reasons why and the period during which the representations should not be disclosed. They should also identify any representations for which there is a consent to disclosure for the purposes of that Act. Ottawa, June 6, 2005 EILEEN BOYD REGULATIONS AMENDING THE DESIGNATED PROVISIONS (CUSTOMS) REGULATIONS AMENDMENTS 1. Schedule 1 to the Designated Provisions (Customs) Regulations (see footnote 1) is amended by adding the following after Part 7: PART 7.1 REPORTING OF IMPORTED GOODS REGULATIONS
2. Part 7.1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after item 6:
COMING INTO FORCE 3. (1) Subject to subsection (2), these Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered. (2) Section 2 comes into force on December 5, 2005. [24-1-o] S.C. 2001, c. 25, s. 62 R.S., c. 1 (2nd Supp.) SOR/2002-336 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
NOTICE:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
