RCMP Fact Sheets

Customs and Excise Program

QUICK FACTS • The most common contraband or prohibited goods smuggled into Canada include: firearms, tobacco, alcohol, currency, drugs and jewellery. • Investigations into national security and organized crime are priorities for the program. • Approximately 80 percent of Canada’s exports go to the United States, while nearly 70 percent of our imports come from the U.S.

Overview
The RCMP’s Customs and Excise Program is responsible for enforcing laws within Canada and along the Canada/U.S. border with respect to:

• the international movement of goods,
• the illicit manufacture, distribution or possession of contraband products (including tobacco and spirits),
• the illicit traffic of critical high technology and strategic goods such as chemical, biological, nuclear weapons and other armament,
• regulations that impose non-tariff (permit) controls on the international movement of commodities.

Border realities
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) have a shared responsibility for securing the border. Their efforts are complemented by the joint Canada/U.S. Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs) situated strategically along the length of the Canada/U.S. border.

Canada shares the world’s longest undefended border with the United States, stretching nearly 9,000 kilometers across land and water.

Our trade partnership with the U.S. is the largest in the world, with more than 300 thousand people and $1.5 billion in goods and services crossing the border every day.

Partnerships
The program is committed to building and maintaining partnerships nationally and internationally to provide the best response to policing and security issues. As well, the program undertakes community outreach and awareness initiatives emphasizing the RCMP’s role in cross-border crime and national security.

Services provided by the Customs policy centre include:

• developing and implementing policy in support of legislative amendments,
• monitoring high-risk investigations,
• monitoring criminal information and producing intelligence, and
• developing and delivering training.