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PRESS COVERAGE ACROSS lets companies clear customs in advance The Financial Post Canadians are only too familiar with the way workers are sent home and factories shut down whenever the
delivery of component parts is delayed by strikes or transportation foul-ups. If you have an electronic or faxed invoice from the shipper, you can electronically send necessary information to Ottawa, says Margaret Stinson, customs and transportation supervisor in Hamilton, Ont. at Westinghouse & Cutler-Hammer Products, a division of Eaton Yale Ltd., which manufactures components for electrical controls. "They'll flag the shipment as one to just wave through or as one they want to inspect, based on your previous history and the nature of the goods you're carrying," she says. Allan Cocksedge, assistant deputy minister with the customs border services branch of Revenue Canada, said in a speech to the Electronic Data Institute last month that he expects 80% of all commercial imports to be electronically released through the ACROSS system within three years. ACROSS, which is being pilot-tested in four Southern Ontario locations, is the latest in a series of EDI customs initiatives undertaken by Revenue Canada in a response to budget cuts and demands from importers, brokers anti agents to speed up release times and reduce bureaucratic hassles at border crossings. Its first EDI initiative, the Customs Automated Data EXchange (CADEX), was introduced in 1988 and now has more than 270 clients, accounting for about 83% of the total commercial entry documents processed by the department. Companies wanting to use the system must set up computer hardware, modems and soft ware conforming to CADEX requirements. To be accepted as a client, companies must post "appropriate security" with Ottawa, with the fee based on the volume and nature of the goods being shipped and on the company's reputation. The money is used to guarantee payment of customs duties and the goods and services tax. The security required can reach $10 million, and small customs brokers have accused Ottawa of trying to put them out of business. Cocksedge says the policy is necessary because 20 brokers have defaulted in the past four years, taking substantial amounts of money with them. The system has reduced the need for companies to hire outside
brokers. Many firms are establishing in-house departments to handle the cross-border transactions and track
shipments. "Once a day we get a statement from Ottawa about what shipments were made and accepted, the previous day's bill and a daily total," Stinson says. "At the end of the month you get a bill. Right now we go physically down to the customs office in Hamilton to pay it" but she expects the company will be paying electronically by the end of the year. A CADEX companion program, Line Release, couples the electronic handling of cargo and release documents with enforcement and tariff information and enables customs officers to clear shipments before a truck actually reaches the border. "All you have to deal with are new parts you haven't brought in before," Stinson says. She says it cost her company about $25,000 to pay for the hardware and software required to initially get the EDI system going. "We justified it in less than one year." Stinson found the move to electronic customs clearance particularly exciting because the customs department
was one of the last parts of her company to become computerized. |
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