Canada Postpones CARM Launch Date for Trade Partners

The Canada Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) program launch has been pushed back for trade partners until October 2024 to allow the Canadian government time to hammer out technical issues with the program.

CARM is Canada Border Security Service's new program for assessing and collecting duties and taxes on B2B goods into Canada. When it is live and functional, importers will pay duties and taxes through the CARM portal. It was set to take effect for all traders on May 13, but instead it will launch internally for CBSA on May 13. CARM said in its release: “Given the links between CARM and other business mainframe systems in the CBSA and Canada Revenue Agency, the next scheduled window to migrate major IT changes is October 2024.”

However, in a letter to Canada's Standing Committee on International Trade, a group of organizations representing brokers, chambers of commerce, express carriers, freight forwarders, retailers and other businesses, have noted that CARM is not ready to launch. In fact, is falling short in a number of areas, including in its calculation of duties and taxes, which the groups say continue to be incorrect. In addition, only 1% of Canada’s trade volume is ready as only 3 of 33 trade partners have had their software certified (as of the date of the letter).