Customs Brokerage. Cleared before the freight arrives.
US to Canada, Canada to the US, overseas imports into Canada and Canadian exports worldwide. Classification, duty, CARM, ACE, ISF and CUSMA origin handled by licensed customs brokers — scheduled against your freight instead of separately from it.
Cross-border freight almost never fails on trucks. It fails on classification, origin, valuation and a permit nobody knew was required.
Customs brokerage is the licensed practice of preparing and filing the entry documents that clear imported goods through a national customs authority. A customs broker classifies each product under the Harmonized System, establishes its customs value and country of origin, calculates the duty, tax and any special tariffs owed, transmits the entry to the customs agency, arranges release, and keeps the records the law requires afterwards. In Canada that filing runs through the Canada Border Services Agency under CARM as a Commercial Accounting Declaration. In the United States it runs through US Customs and Border Protection in ACE, and for ocean cargo it is preceded by an Importer Security Filing. The importer of record remains legally responsible for the accuracy of every entry — which is exactly why the classification, the valuation and the origin claim matter more than the freight rate.
Qeep provides customs brokerage services on both sides of the border, with entries filed by licensed customs brokers — CBSA-licensed into Canada, CBP-licensed into the United States. What we add on top is the part most importers actually lose money on: the coordination. Your entry and your equipment stop being two separate projects run by two companies that have never spoken to each other.
A container that clears on paper but has no drayage booked still accrues demurrage. Customs and freight fail together, so they should be planned together.
Why importers get this wrong
Three patterns account for most of the money lost at the border. The first is inherited classification — accepting whatever HS code the supplier typed on the invoice, which is a number the importer, not the supplier, is legally accountable for. The second is an unclaimed origin benefit: North American goods that fully qualify for CUSMA duty-free treatment pay full duty because nobody ever collected a certification of origin. The third is discovering a requirement at the border — a food, health, wireless or vehicle permit that had to exist before the shipment moved, not after it stopped.
What changed in 2026
Two changes reset the assumptions a lot of importers were still working from. In Canada, CARM transition measures ended, so an importer can no longer rely on a broker’s bond to release goods — the financial security has to be posted under the importer’s own CBSA account. In the United States, the US$800 de minimis exemption was indefinitely suspended for every mode other than the international postal network, effective June 24, 2026. Low-value e-commerce shipments that used to enter free now need a real entry and owe real duty. If your cross-border model was designed before either change, it is worth re-modelling — and that is a conversation, not a quote.
Every direction, one desk
Four directions we clear.
Northbound, southbound, overseas inbound and Canadian outbound. Each has its own filings, its own deadlines and its own way of going wrong.
Southbound
Canada to United States
Canadian goods entering the US. We pre-file so the entry is accepted before the driver reaches primary inspection, run the CUSMA origin claim where the goods qualify, and manage the bond, the entry summary and any partner-government-agency data.
US goods entering Canada. Release is requested against a PARS barcode before arrival, the Commercial Accounting Declaration follows under CARM, and duty plus GST are calculated against the classification we set up front — not guessed at the booth.
Ocean and air imports from Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East arriving at Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Montreal, Halifax or Toronto Pearson. Classification, valuation, origin, anti-dumping exposure and other-government-department permits handled before the vessel berths.
Canadian exports to any destination market. Export declarations where required, controlled-goods and permit screening, and the origin and commercial documentation your buyer's broker needs to clear the goods at the far end without a hold.
Canadian Export Reporting System · export permits · certificates of origin · consular documents
Standing at the border
Trusted-trader standing on both sides.
Programs like these are not marketing badges. They change how your freight is treated when a border slows down — which exams get waived, which lanes stay open, and how fast a hold gets worked.
United States · CBP
C-TPAT
Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. Trusted-trader standing with US Customs — fewer examinations, and priority processing when a port backs up or the border tightens.
Canada · CBSA
Partners in Protection
PIP is the Canadian counterpart to C-TPAT, and the two are mutually recognised. Holding both is what makes trusted-trader treatment apply in each direction rather than only one.
Canada · CBSA
Bonded carrier
Authorised to move goods in bond before they are released. Your freight can travel inland to a sufferance warehouse or an inland CBSA office instead of having to clear at the first port it reaches.
United States · FMCSA
Licensed freight broker
US property broker authority backed by a BMC-84 surety bond — the financial security that stands behind carrier payment on every load we tender on your behalf.
The rules that govern your shipment
What actually has to be filed, and by when.
A plain-language reference to the requirements that decide whether your freight is released or held. Current as at July 2026 — tariff measures in particular change often, so we re-verify before every quote.
Customs filing requirements for Canada and United States shipments, current as at July 2026
Requirement
Authority
What it means for you
CARM
Canada · CBSA
Importers need a business number with an RM import-export account, a CARM Client Portal account with two Business Account Managers, and their own financial security to release goods before payment.
Commercial Accounting Declaration
Canada · CBSA
The CAD replaced the paper B3 accounting document and the B2 adjustment request. Corrections are now made by amending the declaration itself.
ACI eManifest / PARS
Canada · CBSA
Highway carriers transmit cargo and conveyance data in advance; the PARS barcode links the release request to the shipment before the truck arrives.
ACE entry / PAPS
United States · CBP
Entry and entry summary are transmitted through the Automated Commercial Environment. PAPS links the US-bound truck shipment to the pre-filed entry.
ISF 10+2
United States · CBP
Ocean cargo only. Ten importer elements filed no later than 24 hours before the goods are laden aboard the vessel at origin; liquidated damages up to US$5,000 per violation.
De minimis suspension
United States · CBP
Effective June 24, 2026 the US$800 de minimis exemption is indefinitely suspended for all non-postal modes. Low-value shipments now need informal entry to US$2,500, formal entry above.
CUSMA origin
Canada · US · Mexico
Nine data elements, no prescribed form, may sit on the invoice, may be certified by exporter, producer or importer, blanket period up to twelve months.
Section 232 metals
United States
As at July 2026, 50% on core steel, aluminum and copper articles and 25% on certain derivative products, layered on top of ordinary duty. Rates move — we re-check before every quote.
Courier low-value shipments
Canada · CBSA
Qualifying courier goods up to CAD $3,300 use simplified accounting due by the 24th of the following month. US and Mexico origin: duty and tax free to CAD $40, duty free to CAD $150.
This table is general information about customs requirements, not legal or trade-compliance advice for a specific shipment. Requirements depend on the commodity, the origin and the facts of your transaction.
Pre-filed, not pre-worried
A driver should arrive at the booth with the entry already accepted.
Every hour a trailer spends waiting on paperwork is an hour of capacity you paid for and did not use. Pre-filing is not a premium service. It is the baseline.
How a clearance runs
Five steps, and the first one happens before you buy.
01
Classify and quote landed cost
We classify every product under the Harmonized System, confirm origin and tariff treatment, and quote the full landed cost — duty, tax, fees and any special tariffs — before you commit to the purchase order.
02
Set up the account
Agency agreement or power of attorney signed, CARM portal delegation granted in Canada, customs bond sized and issued in the United States, and your product catalogue loaded so classifications stay consistent entry to entry.
03
Pre-file before arrival
Entries are transmitted ahead of the freight — PARS into Canada, PAPS and ACE into the United States, ISF at least 24 hours before ocean lading — so the clearance is already accepted when the equipment shows up.
04
Release at the border
The driver crosses on an accepted release rather than waiting for one. If customs refers the load for examination, we work the referral directly with the port and keep you and the carrier updated in real time.
05
Account, correct and keep records
Accounting is filed on time, duty and tax are reconciled, and where a classification, origin or valuation error is found we file the correction or refund claim and hold the records for the statutory retention period.
Document checklist
What we need from you.
Most delays trace back to one of these arriving late, arriving wrong, or never being asked for. Send them once and we build your profile around them.
Establishes the customs value, the parties, the terms of sale and the currency. The single most-corrected document in customs.
02
Packing list
Provided by Seller / exporter
Piece counts, weights and dimensions. Customs uses it to reconcile the manifest against the entry.
03
Bill of lading or air waybill
Provided by Carrier / forwarder
Proves the contract of carriage and identifies the consignee who may take release of the goods.
04
CUSMA certification of origin
Provided by Exporter, producer or importer
Nine data elements on any document. Without it a qualifying North American good pays full duty it did not have to pay.
05
Agency agreement or power of attorney
Provided by Importer
Authorises a licensed customs broker to transact on your behalf. Nothing can be filed before it exists.
06
CARM portal delegation
Provided by Canadian importer of record
Grants your broker access to file against your CBSA account. Replaces the old broker-bond arrangement entirely.
07
Customs bond (US) / financial security (Canada)
Provided by Importer of record
Guarantees payment of duties and taxes. Required before goods can be released prior to payment.
08
Permits, licences and OGA / OGD data
Provided by Importer
Food, health, wireless, vehicle, chemical and controlled goods each carry their own agency requirement.
What drives the bill
Six inputs decide your landed cost.
None of them is the freight rate. Get these right before the purchase order and the freight rate becomes the small number it should have been all along.
HS tariff classification
The single biggest lever. Two defensible classifications for the same product can differ by double-digit percentage points of duty. It is also the number most often assigned carelessly by a supplier and inherited by the importer who is legally responsible for it.
Country of origin
Origin is where the goods were produced or substantially transformed — not where they shipped from. It decides whether CUSMA duty-free treatment applies, whether a special tariff attaches, and whether anti-dumping duty is in play.
Customs value
Usually transaction value, but assists, royalties, tooling, packing and certain commissions may have to be added, and inland freight after export may be deductible. Under-declaring is a penalty exposure; over-declaring is money handed away.
Special and additional tariffs
Section 232 metals measures, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and safeguard measures sit on top of ordinary duty. These change frequently, so a rate quoted six months ago is not a rate you can budget on today.
Destination tax
Into Canada, 5% GST on the duty-paid value, plus provincial tax on certain goods. Into the United States, no federal sales tax but merchandise processing and harbour maintenance fees apply per entry.
Entry type and volume
Formal versus informal entry, single transaction bond versus continuous bond, and consolidated versus per-shipment accounting all change the per-unit cost of clearing. Frequent importers are usually paying more than they need to on entry structure alone.
Beyond customs itself
The other agencies that can hold your freight.
Customs is often not the only authority with a say. These are the agencies whose requirements most frequently surprise importers — identified for your commodity before the first shipment moves.
Partner government agencies and other government departments by commodity type, United States and Canada
If you import
United States
Canada
Food, beverages and supplements
FDA · USDA (FSIS)
CFIA · Health Canada
Plants, seeds, wood packaging
USDA (APHIS)
CFIA
Drugs, medical devices, cosmetics
FDA
Health Canada
Radios, wireless and electronics
FCC
ISED Canada
Vehicles, tires and parts
DOT / NHTSA · EPA
Transport Canada
Chemicals, pesticides, refrigerants
EPA
Environment Canada · Health Canada (PMRA)
Consumer products and children's goods
CPSC
Health Canada
Controlled, strategic and dual-use goods
BIS · DDTC
Global Affairs Canada
Why one desk beats three vendors
Broker, carrier and forwarder — or one file.
Comparison of a separate customs broker, carrier and forwarder against a single Qeep customs and freight file
Dimension
Separate vendors
Qeep customs desk
Who schedules the truck against the entry
Nobody. The broker files, the carrier drives, and the two find out about each other at the booth.
One desk. The release request and the equipment are scheduled against each other before the driver dispatches.
When you learn the duty
On the invoice, after the goods have already landed and the purchase order is unchangeable.
Before the purchase order. Classification and landed cost are quoted up front so sourcing decisions use real numbers.
Who owns a customs hold
Escalation between three vendors while demurrage and detention accrue against you.
One named contact working the referral with the port and the carrier at the same time.
Classification consistency
Whatever the supplier wrote on the invoice, re-keyed shipment by shipment.
A maintained product catalogue, so the same SKU is classified the same way on every entry and survives an audit.
Visibility
Separate portals for the broker, the carrier and the forwarder — if you get portals at all.
One file covering the entry, the equipment and the delivery, with milestone updates pushed to you.
A customs broker prepares and files the entry that releases your goods through a national customs authority. That means classifying every product under the Harmonized System, establishing its customs value and country of origin, calculating the duty, tax and any special tariffs owed, transmitting the entry to the customs agency, arranging release, and keeping the records the law requires afterwards. Into Canada that is a Commercial Accounting Declaration through CBSA under CARM. Into the United States it is an entry and entry summary in CBP’s ACE system. Qeep provides customs brokerage services on both sides of the border, with entries filed by licensed customs brokers.
Which directions do you clear — and can you handle overseas imports?
All four directions. United States into Canada and Canada into the United States across every major highway crossing and rail gateway. Overseas imports into Canada from any origin country — Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East — arriving by ocean or air at Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto Pearson or an inland customs office. And Canadian exports to any destination worldwide, including the export declaration, permits and origin documentation your buyer’s broker will need at the other end.
What is CARM, and what do I have to do as an importer into Canada?
CARM (CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management) is the Canada Border Services Agency’s system for assessing and collecting duties and taxes on commercial imports. As the importer of record you need a business number with an import-export (RM) program account, an account in the CARM Client Portal with at least two people holding the Business Account Manager role, and — if you want goods released before you pay — your own financial security posted under Release Prior to Payment. You then delegate access to your broker inside the portal. The old arrangement where a broker’s bond covered its clients has ended; the security now has to be yours. We walk you through every step of that setup.
Do I need a customs bond to import into the United States?
Yes, for any commercial entry. You have two choices. A single transaction bond covers one shipment through one port — sensible if you import occasionally. A continuous bond covers every entry at every US port for twelve months and is commonly set at the greater of US$50,000 or 10% of the duties, taxes and fees you paid in the previous twelve months. If you import more than roughly four or five times a year, or if you file ISF on ocean cargo, the continuous bond is almost always cheaper and far less friction. We size it with you and arrange it through a surety before your first entry.
Has the US $800 de minimis exemption really gone away?
Yes. Under an interim final rule effective June 24, 2026, the de minimis administrative exemption for shipments valued at US$800 or less is indefinitely suspended for merchandise arriving through every mode other than the international postal network. Shipments that used to clear duty-free as Section 321 now need a proper entry — informal entry procedures up to US$2,500, formal entry above that — and duties, taxes and fees apply. For e-commerce sellers who built a fulfillment model on de minimis, this is the single biggest customs change in a decade, and it is the reason a lot of DTC brands are re-cutting their Canadian and US flows right now.
How does a CUSMA certification of origin work — is there a form?
There is no prescribed government form. A CUSMA (USMCA) certification of origin is a set of nine required data elements that can appear on the commercial invoice or any other document, including electronically with a digital signature. It can be completed by the exporter, the producer or the importer. It can cover a single shipment or a blanket period of up to twelve months. The elements are: certifier role, certifier details, exporter, producer, importer, description and six-digit HS classification, the origin criterion, the blanket period if any, and an authorised signature with the required certifying statement. Getting the origin criterion wrong is one of the most common reasons a duty-free claim is denied on audit.
What is ISF 10+2 and when does it have to be filed?
The Importer Security Filing applies to ocean cargo bound for the United States. Ten data elements are the importer’s responsibility and two are the carrier’s — hence “10+2”. The importer’s filing must reach CBP no later than 24 hours before the cargo is laden aboard the vessel at the foreign port, not before it arrives in the US. Miss that window and CBP can assess liquidated damages of up to US$5,000 per violation, and the container can be held on arrival. ISF does not apply to air, truck or rail — which surprises a lot of first-time ocean importers.
How much duty and tax will I actually pay?
Landed cost is built from five things: the HS tariff classification of the goods, the customs value you declare, the country of origin and whether a trade agreement applies, any special or additional tariffs on that commodity, and the tax at destination. Into Canada that tax is 5% GST on the duty-paid value, plus provincial tax on certain goods. Into the US there is no federal sales tax, but merchandise processing and harbour maintenance fees apply. Steel, aluminum and copper articles currently carry Section 232 tariffs on top of ordinary duty. We classify the goods and quote the full landed cost before you place the purchase order, not after the container lands.
What happens if my goods need another government agency's approval?
Most shipments do not. But food, plants, animal products, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, radios and wireless devices, vehicles, pesticides, chemicals and consumer products often do. In the United States those partner government agencies include the FDA, USDA, EPA, FCC, CPSC and DOT, and their data is transmitted with the entry as a PGA message set. In Canada the equivalent other government departments include the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, Transport Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Global Affairs Canada for controlled goods and permits. We identify which agencies touch your commodity before the first shipment moves, so a missing permit is not discovered at the border.
Can you handle customs if another company moves my freight?
Yes. Customs brokerage is available as a standalone service — you keep your carrier, your forwarder and your existing lanes, and we handle classification, filing and release. Most clients eventually consolidate, because the two functions fail together: a truck that arrives before the entry is accepted waits at the booth, and a container that clears while no drayage is booked accrues demurrage. When Qeep runs both, the entry and the equipment are scheduled against each other instead of by two companies who never speak. But you are not required to move freight with us to use the customs desk.
How quickly can you onboard a new importer?
For a straightforward US-to-Canada or Canada-to-US importer with clean product data, a first entry can usually be filed within one to three business days of receiving a signed agency agreement or power of attorney and your customs profile. The variables are on your side, not ours: CARM portal registration and financial security in Canada, and bond issuance in the United States, both take time to put in place if you do not already have them. Start those two items first — everything else moves quickly once they exist.
Do you clear low-value and courier shipments into Canada?
Yes. Canada’s courier low-value shipment stream covers qualifying goods up to CAD $3,300, with simplified accounting due by the 24th day of the month following release. Courier shipments from the United States and Mexico are duty and tax free up to CAD $40, and duty free — though taxes still apply — from CAD $40 to $150. Above CAD $3,300 the shipment needs a full commercial entry. If your Canadian e-commerce flow lives in that band, the thresholds are worth designing your order values around, and we will model it with you.
Tell us the origin, destination and mode. A Qeep specialist replies within 10 minutes with live capacity, lane price, and a transit window you can actually plan around.
