CUSMA – How to Compliantly Manage Your Free Trade Claims

The Canada-United States-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA) has been in effect since July 1, 2020. As was the case under the previous North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), many North American importers and exporters intuitively claim the CUSMA preferential treatment without the goods having undergone a bona fide origin analysis beforehand, as is prescribed by the CUSMA rules of origin and origin procedures.

Note: CUSMA is synonymous with USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement), which is the designation used in the USA. In Mexico, they use the term T-MEC (Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá). In French Canada, they use the term ACEUM (Accord Canada-États-Unis-Mexique). All these terms refer to the same free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

If you do not fully understand CUSMA, your company could either miss out on profitable tariff reduction opportunities or it may be subjecting itself to costly penalties, reassessments of duties and taxes on retroactive customs transactions in the event a Customs agency overturns their free trade claim.

In this 3.5-hour trade compliance training, attendees will learn how to properly qualify their products in accordance with CUSMA rules and guidelines, how to manage their CUSMA certifications of origin as well as how to implement recordkeeping practices that can withstand an origin audit by CBSA or by U.S. CBP.

Our expert, Marc Ticehurst, who has over 27 years of experience in the Customs industry, will cover the following topics:

The basics of all free trade agreements
A general overview of CUSMA
Proof of origin requirements – The CUSMA certification of origin
Understanding CUSMA origin criteria
CUSMA origin analysis (Classification, Solicitation, Qualification, Certification)
CUSMA rules of origin
Rules for special sectors (Chemicals, Iron & Steel, Textiles & Apparel, Agricultural, Automotive)
Finer points of origination (Accumulation, De Minimis, Repairs & Returns, Sets)
Recordkeeping under CUSMA
CBSA versus U.S. CBP audit & enforcement provisions

Who is this training for?

Employees of Canadian importers, who import goods from the USA or Mexico
Employees of Canadian manufacturers and/or exporters, who export goods to the USA or Mexico
Employees of Canadian companies, who act as non-resident importers of record in the USA (i.e., Canadian companies who handle customs clearance of their exported goods through U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

Please note that W2C also offers personalized (customer-adapted) online Customs training, upon request. If you wish to receive an in-house training on CUSMA, please contact our training department or your W2C representative.

For more information call : 1.514.368.2637 x112