Customs Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 1 (2nd Supp.))

Marginal note:Regulations

12.01 The Governor in Council may make regulations for the purposes of sections 11 and 12, including regulations

• (a) prescribing the circumstances under which persons, goods or classes thereof on board a conveyance, or classes thereof, are required to present themselves or to be reported, as the case may be, despite subsection 11(5) or 12(5); or

• (b) defining the expression “make contact with another conveyance” for the purposes of subsections 11(5) and 12(5) and prescribing the circumstances under which a conveyance or a class thereof makes contact with another conveyance.

Marginal note:Advance information

• 12.1 (1) Before the arrival of a conveyance in Canada, the owner or person in charge of a conveyance who is prescribed or any other prescribed person shall give the Agency prescribed information about the conveyance and the persons and goods on board or expected to be on board the conveyance.

• Marginal note:Exemption

  (2) A person who is required to provide information under subsection (1) shall hold a valid carrier code unless they are exempt.

• Marginal note:Carrier code — requirements

  (3) An application for a carrier code shall be made in the prescribed form with the prescribed information.

• Marginal note:Carrier code — issuance

  (4) The Minister shall issue a carrier code to a person who applies for it if the application meets the requirements referred to in subsection (3) and the Minister is satisfied that the requirements and conditions prescribed under paragraph (8)(e) for the carrier code to be issued have been met.

• Marginal note:Carrier code — suspension, cancellation and reinstatement

  (5) The Minister may, subject to the regulations, suspend, cancel or reinstate a carrier code.

• Marginal note:Notification

  (6) The Minister may issue a notification to any person who provides information under subsection (1) to require the person to take any specified measure with respect to the information.

• Marginal note:Obligation to comply

  (7) The person to whom a notification is issued shall comply with the notification.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (8) The Governor in Council may make regulations for the purposes of this section, including regulations

  • (a) respecting the information that must be given under subsection (1);

  • (b) prescribing the persons or classes of persons who must give the information under subsection (1);

  • (c) respecting the circumstances in which the information must be given under subsection (1);

  • (d) respecting the time within which and the manner in which the information must be given under subsection (1);

  • (e) regarding the requirements and conditions that are to be met before a carrier code may be issued;

  • (f) regarding the persons or classes of persons who are exempt from holding a valid carrier code; and

  • (g) regarding the manner and circumstances in which a carrier code may be suspended, cancelled or reinstated.

Marginal note:Obligation to answer questions and present goods

13 Every person who reports goods under section 12 inside or outside Canada or is stopped by an officer in accordance with section 99.1 shall

• (a) answer truthfully any question asked by an officer with respect to the goods; and

• (b) if an officer so requests, present the goods to the officer, remove any covering from the goods, unload any conveyance or open any part of the conveyance, or open or unpack any package or container that the officer wishes to examine.

Marginal note:Restriction on unloading before report

• 14 (1) No person shall unload goods from a conveyance arriving in Canada until the goods have been reported in accordance with sections 12 and 13 except where the safety of the conveyance, or the goods or persons on the conveyance, is threatened by collision, fire, the stress of weather or other similar circumstances or in such other circumstances as may be prescribed.

• Marginal note:Report of goods unloaded

  (2) Where a conveyance is unloaded in the circumstances described in subsection (1), the person in charge of the conveyance shall forthwith, in such manner as may be prescribed, report the conveyance, the goods that were so unloaded and any goods that remain on the conveyance at a customs office designated for that purpose.

Marginal note:Report of goods illegally imported

15 Any person who finds or has in his possession goods that have been imported and who believes on reasonable grounds that the provisions of this or any other Act of Parliament that prohibits, controls or regulates the importation of goods have not been complied with in respect of the goods or that duties levied thereon have not been paid shall forthwith report to an officer that he has found the goods or has them in his possession.

Marginal note:Wreck deemed imported

• 16 (1) For the purposes of this Act, any wreck that has come into Canada from outside Canada shall be deemed to have been imported.

• Marginal note:Report of wreck and liability for duties

  (2) If any wreck that has come into Canada from outside Canada is released to a person under section 61 of the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, that person

  • (a) shall forthwith report the delivery to an officer; and

  • (b) is, from the time of the delivery, liable for all duties thereon calculated at the rates applicable to the wreck at the time of the delivery.

• Definition of wreck

  (3) In this section, wreck includes

  • (a) jetsam, flotsam, lagan and derelict found in, or on the shores of, the sea, any tidal water, or any of the inland waters;

  • (b) cargo, stores and tackle of any vessel and of all parts of the vessel separated therefrom;

  • (c) the property of shipwrecked persons; and

  • (d) any wrecked aircraft or any part thereof and cargo thereof.

Duties

Marginal note:Goods charged with duties from importation

• 17 (1) Imported goods are charged with duties thereon from the time of importation thereof until such time as the duties are paid or the charge is otherwise removed.

• Marginal note:Rates of duties

  (2) Subject to this Act, the rates of duties on imported goods shall be the rates applicable to the goods at the time they are accounted for under subsection 32(1), (2) or (5) or, where goods have been released in the circumstances set out in paragraph 32(2)(b), at the time of release.

• Marginal note:Liability

  (3) Whenever the importer of the goods that have been released or any person authorized under paragraph 32(6)(a) or subsection 32(7) to account for goods becomes liable under this Act to pay duties on those goods, the owner of the goods at the time of release becomes jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable, with the importer or person authorized, to pay the duties.

Liability for Duties on Goods Reported

Marginal note:Presumption of importation

• 18 (1) For the purposes of this section, all goods reported under section 12 shall be deemed to have been imported.

• Marginal note:Liability of person reporting goods short landed

  (2) Subject to subsections (3) and 20(2.1), any person who reports goods under section 12, and any person for whom that person acts as agent or employee while so reporting, are jointly and severally or solidarily liable for all duties levied on the goods unless one or the other of them proves, within the time that may be prescribed, that the duties have been paid or that the goods

  • (a) were destroyed or lost prior to report or destroyed after report but prior to receipt in a place referred to in paragraph (c) or by a person referred to in paragraph (d);

  • (b) did not leave the place outside Canada from which they were to have been exported;

  • (c) have been received in a customs office, sufferance warehouse, bonded warehouse or duty free shop;

  • (d) have been received by a person who transports or causes to be transported within Canada goods in accordance with subsection 20(1);

  • (e) have been exported; or

  • (f) have been released.

• Marginal note:Rates of duties

  (3) The rates of duties payable on goods under subsection (2) shall be the rates applicable to the goods at the time they were reported under section 12.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (4) The Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing the circumstances in which such bonds or other security as may be prescribed may be required from any person who is or may become liable for the payment of duties under this section.

Movement and Storage of Goods

Marginal note:Disposition of goods before release

• 19 (1) Subject to section 20, any person who is authorized by an officer or by any prescribed means to do so may

  • (a) deliver goods that have been reported under section 12 or cause them to be delivered from a customs office to another customs office or a sufferance warehouse;

  • (b) deliver such goods or cause them to be delivered from a sufferance warehouse to another sufferance warehouse;

  • (c) where such goods are designated as ships’ stores by regulations made under paragraph 99(g) of the Customs Tariff, remove them or cause them to be removed from a customs office or sufferance warehouse for use on board a conveyance of a class prescribed under that paragraph in accordance with regulations made under that paragraph;

  • (d) export such goods or cause them to be exported directly from a customs office or sufferance warehouse; or

  • (e) where such goods are at a customs office, leave them at that office, subject to such storage charges as may be prescribed.

• Marginal note:Authorization to deliver goods

  (1.1) In prescribed circumstances and under prescribed conditions, a person may be authorized by an officer or by any prescribed means to deliver goods or cause them to be delivered to the place of business of the importer, owner or consignee.

• Marginal note:Movement and storage of goods

  (2) Subject to section 20, where goods that have been reported under section 12 have been described in the prescribed form at a customs office designated for that purpose, any person who is authorized by an officer or by any prescribed means to do so may

  • (a) deliver the goods or cause them to be delivered from a customs office or sufferance warehouse to a bonded warehouse or duty free shop;

  • (b) deliver them or cause them to be delivered from a bonded warehouse to another bonded warehouse or to a duty free shop or from a duty free shop to another duty free shop or to a bonded warehouse;

  • (c) where the goods are designated as ships’ stores by regulations made under paragraph 99(g) of the Customs Tariff, remove them or cause them to be removed from a bonded warehouse for use on board a conveyance of a class prescribed under that paragraph in accordance with regulations made under that paragraph;

  • (d) export them or cause them to be exported directly from a duty free shop in accordance with regulations made under section 30; or

  • (e) export them or cause them to be exported directly from a bonded warehouse.

• Marginal note:Duties removed

  (3) Goods that are removed as ships’ stores under paragraph (1)(c) or exported under paragraph (1)(d) are, from the time of their exportation, no longer charged with duties.

• (4) and (5) [Repealed, 1995, c. 41, s. 3]

Marginal note:Statistics

• 19.1 (1) Subject to this section, any person who is authorized by an officer under subsection 19(2) to deliver goods or cause them to be delivered to a bonded warehouse shall, before the delivery, furnish an officer at a customs office with the statistical code for the goods determined by reference to the Coding System established pursuant to section 22.1 of the Statistics Act.

• Marginal note:Prescribed form

  (2) The statistical code referred to in subsection (1) shall be furnished in the prescribed form and manner of filing with the prescribed information.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (3) The Governor in Council may make regulations exempting persons or goods, or classes thereof, from the requirements of subsection (1) subject to such conditions, if any, as are specified in the regulations.

Transportation

Marginal note:Transportation of goods

• 20 (1) Except in such circumstances as may be prescribed, every person who transports or causes to be transported within Canada goods that have been imported but have not been released shall do so subject to such conditions and subject to such bonds or other security as may be prescribed.

• Marginal note:Liability of transporter

  (2) Subject to subsection (2.1), every person who transports or causes to be transported within Canada goods, other than goods to which paragraph 32(2)(b) applies, that have been imported but have not been released is liable for all duties on the goods unless the person proves, within the time that may be prescribed, that the goods were

  • (a) destroyed while being so transported;

  • (b) received in a customs office, sufferance warehouse, bonded warehouse or duty free shop;

  • (c) where the goods are designated as ships’ stores by regulations made under paragraph 99(g) of the Customs Tariff, received on board a conveyance of a class prescribed under that paragraph for use on the conveyance in accordance with regulations made under that paragraph;

  • (d) received by another person who is entitled under subsection (1) to transport such goods; or

  • (e) exported.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2.1) If a person transports within Canada goods to which paragraph 32(2)(b) applies, which the person is required to report under section 12 but which have not been released, the person is liable for all duties on the goods unless the person proves, within the time that may be prescribed, that the goods were

  • (a) destroyed while being transported;

  • (b) received in a customs office, bonded warehouse or duty free shop;

  • (c) if the goods are designated as ships’ stores by regulations made under paragraph 99(g) of the Customs Tariff, received on board a conveyance of a class prescribed under that paragraph for use on the conveyance in accordance with regulations made under that paragraph;

  • (d) exported; or

  • (e) received at the place of business of the importer, owner or consignee.

• Marginal note:Rates of duties

  (3) The rates of duties payable on goods under subsection (2) shall be the rates applicable to the goods at the time they were reported under section 12.