A Canada Border Services Agency officer and narcotics detection dog Denver take part in a narcotics detection demonstration at the CBSA Lansdowne port of entry in Lansdowne, Ont., on Feb. 12.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
The Canada Border Services Agency is proving to be the linchpin of the federal government’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade threats.
The federal agency, which facilitates the entry of authorized goods and people into Canada, is at the forefront of trade enforcement and plans to use a new digital system to input any tariff-rate changes for U.S. imports if the White House moves ahead with its ill-conceived trade action on March 4.
Known as the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system, it assesses and collects duties on commercial goods. The system also flags any potential financial errors for importers – troubleshooting that takes some of the guesswork out of keeping track of tariff-rate changes.
Some 137,000 businesses have already registered for CARM, but many importers are still resisting the agency’s calls to register for the digital system, which launched in October. There were 163,881 importers in 2023, according to data from Statistics Canada.
To make the transition easier, especially for small companies, the CBSA offered a year-long grace period. The looming threat of a trade war with the U.S., however, has made it imperative for holdouts to sign up.
“If the government of Canada did decide to make changes to tariff classification, CARM is the system where the rubber would hit the road,” said Ted Gallivan, the CBSA’s executive vice-president, in an interview.
To alleviate the stress of signing up for smaller businesses, the CBSA created an option allowing customs brokers to use their business numbers to import goods if their clients do not yet have a CARM account. That transition measure, though, expires in October.
Although some have recently asked the CBSA to reactivate their accounts, Mr. Trump’s trade antics are making it critical that more of those businesses start using CARM as soon as possible.
The U.S. President’s mercurial approach to trade means Ottawa must quickly respond with retaliatory tariffs to defend Canada’s economic interests. CARM gives the government the flexibility to adjust tariff rates as required while offering transparency about the changes to importers.
The digital system has already processed more than 11.1 million transactions, representing at least $13.3-billion in duties and taxes assessed and more than $8.4-billion in revenue.
CARM’s utility, though, goes beyond revenue collection for federal coffers. The system also generates real-time analytics that bolster Canada’s fight against the flow of firearms, fentanyl and other illegal drugs from the United States and other countries.
Given the volume of commercial goods that cross the Canada-U.S. border each day, it has become easier for criminals to exploit blind spots in our country’s trading regime to smuggle in contraband goods. Mislabelled packages and fake invoices are just some of the tricks of the illegal trafficking trade.
“The CBSA just wants to know who’s bringing things into the country, so that we can help decide what packages we open and don’t open, to keep Canadians safe,” Mr. Gallivan said.
CARM data is loaded into an analytics warehouse every 15 minutes, providing near real-time analytics. That constant refresh of data enables the CBSA to run algorithms and conduct pattern recognition to spot criminals.
Organizing importation data by business type and business history, for instance, helps the CBSA identify fentanyl traffickers and flag them to police.
The synthetic opioid is produced with precursor chemicals such as piperidines. Other fentanyl precursors include dual-use chemicals, such as benzene and acetic acid, which also have legitimate industrial uses.
Data analytics flag inconsistencies, such as a company that is importing an outsized quantity of a dual-use chemical relative to its size and industry norms.
The CBSA will also put packages through scanners, physically open them for inspections and send the contents to a lab if it finds an unknown chemical.
Sometimes it finds fentanyl itself. In 2024, the CBSA seized 532 grams of fentanyl that originated in the United States and 4,403 grams from all other countries.
Mr. Trump is falsely accusing Canada of being a major source of fentanyl exports to the United States. His rhetoric distracts from the quantity of narcotics and firearms smuggled into Canada from the United States.
Last year, the CBSA’s total haul of confiscated drugs (all types of narcotics in various forms that originated in the U.S.): 8,297,106 grams, 13,001 millilitres and 469,996 doses.
America was also the source country for some 839 firearms and 3,398 other prohibited weapons seized by the federal agency in 2024.
Canada’s fight against drugs and guns depends on more law-abiding businesses getting on board with CARM. Their importation data makes it harder for criminals to game the system.
Trade enforcement isn’t just about tariffs – it’s about our national security, too.