North America Moves Toward More Customs Cooperation
BALTIMORE -- There are some barriers to data sharing among NAFTA companies that would ease goods' flow across borders, but progress is steady, panelists said at the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference. Kim Campbell, founder of MKMarin, a Canadian trade services firm, said some of the problems with data sharing on Canadian exports is that Canada generally doesn't ask exporters to submit information if they're sending their goods to their southern neighbor. "We don’t actually collect export data into the United States," she said, and shipments from Canada to Mexico are often not tracked, either, because firms took advantage of the lack of reporting requirement for shipments south, as goods transited across the U.S.
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An audit was critical of both the technology -- the information was still organized in an Access database -- and the lackadaisical approach by authorities. "Regulations themselves were actually quite weak. That still needs some work, those pieces of legislation are moving forward right now," she said, with funding for a Canadian Export Reporting System, or CERS. But even as Canada tries to tighten up its system somewhat, it is not interested in having the same level of requirements the U.S. has. So when CBP talks to its Canadian counterparts about pilots with e-manifests for goods moving by truck, Canada is open to receiving them, but has no interest in providing an e-manifest from trucking firms on its side -- because it doesn't want to require any manifest for exports to the U.S.
While the U.S. still largely uses paper reporting for exports, import data is handled through ACE. Canada has been slower to implement a single-window solution, and is still working out the kinks, Campbell said. She said partner government agencies are expecting different information than what they're getting through the system, and more information, too. Transition to the system was supposed to be mandatory earlier this year, but that deadline has slipped to April 2019. But, she said, customs brokers have to register to use the system and be approved by January 2019. "The update issues we’re uncovering are maybe a little bit bigger than they thought," she said.
Israel Morales, trade compliance director for Caterpillar sites in Mexico, noted proudly that Mexico completed its transition to a single window before the U.S. and Canada. But it's not perfect, he said, and the trade is awaiting new regulations. He believes that trade data for exports from the U.S. and Canada should be in English, rather than in Spanish. "We've been pushing very hard on the NAFTA talks to modernize, reducing the burdens on the importers and exporters," he said.
While maquiladoras have invested money in new roads, dedicated lanes and other infrastructure, the companies aren't always seeing the benefit in reduced time at the border, he said. But he said the unified cargo processing pilots are a success story, and that despite the lack of success so far in closing the renegotiated NAFTA, there is momentum to work toward a way that all three countries' electronically submitted data could be shared among customs officials.
Campbell said that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are "very close to signing" memorandums of understanding on positioning customs officials from the three countries at express courier hubs, allowing them to look at the same data. She said that would "help freight move quickly through the three countries in a pre-clearance-type environment."