Advance Rulings under Free Trade Agreements

The Advance Ruling Program provides importers with nationally binding rulings on how free trade agreements with the United States, Mexico, Chile, Israel and Costa Rica apply to future imports of goods into Canada. For example, rulings can be requested to clarify issues related to origin and markings of goods.

Eligibility Criteria

Canadian importers or their agents proposing to import goods from the United States, Mexico, Chile, Israel or Costa Rica.

Summary

The Canada Border Services Agency issues advance rulings on a range of issues relating to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) or the Canada-Costa Rica Agreement (CCRFTA) that include but are not limited to:

 

• whether or not an imported good qualifies as an originating good and thus qualifies for preferential tariff treatment under NAFTA, CIFTA, CCFTA or CCRFTA;
• in the case of goods exported from a NAFTA territory, from Chile or from CCRFTA, whether or not the good meets a specific regional value content requirement; or
• in the case of goods exported from a NAFTA territory or from Chile, whether or not the proposed marking of a good satisfies country-of-origin marking requirements.

To obtain an advance ruling on future imports, requests must be made in writing to the Chief, Client Services Division, in the region in which most of the importations will occur.

The CBSA will review all written applications and let the applicant know if any additional information is required. The Agency aims to issue these rulings within 120 days of receiving the complete information.

An advance ruling number can be noted in any of the following ways:

 

• on the Certificate of Origin;
• on CBSA customs invoice; or
• in the description field of the B3 accounting document.

Although anyone importing the goods covered can use the number and is encouraged to do so, the ruling is only binding for the person or persons to whom the ruling was issued.

An advance ruling may not be applied if imported goods differ materially from the goods that were the subject of the ruling.

An advance ruling may be modified, revoked or considered to be no longer valid in certain limited circumstances, such as:

 

• the person to whom the advance ruling was issued has not acted within the terms and conditions of that ruling;
• the modification or revocation benefits the person who requested the ruling;
• the facts upon which the advanced ruling was based and issued have changed or were found to be inaccurate.

A person who has received an advance ruling has the right to appeal that ruling.

Advance rulings are issued under section 43.1 of theCustoms Act pursuant to Article 509 of NAFTA, Article 5.8 of CIFTA, Article E-09 of CCFTA, or Article V.9 of CCRFTA.
 

For more information, please visit the program Web site or contact the CBSA Client Services office closest to you.

Manitoba Contact(s):
See National Contact.

 

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National Contact(s):
Border Information Service - BIS
Canada Border Services Agency
Telephone: 204-983-3500 or 506-636-5064 (for calls outside Canada)
Toll-free (information): 1-800-461-9999 (for calls within Canada)
Web site: http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/menu-eng.html