Letter from the table: A landed cost is not a surprise bill

Translated from French.

To the Trade Council

I support the direction of the small-importer proposal, but my stance is amend. The rule should make a usable landed-cost estimate part of the transaction, not just ask traders to look for one. I am writing from Montréal, and translating what owners in my language community tell one another: the hard part is often not the tariff itself. It is being unable to tell, before the order is committed, what the tariff and every other necessary charge will add up to.

On 6 March 2026, I accepted a freight quote for a shipment I had budgeted carefully. The goods were invoiced in US dollars. When converted for customs purposes, their value was about CAD $3,200. The freight quote was CAD $1,180. It named the transport and fuel charges, but said destination charges, customs clearance, duties and taxes were not included. I understood that duties and taxes might be extra. I did not understand how many separate charges could arrive later, or what information I needed to get a meaningful total before the shipment left.

The shipment arrived in Montréal on 23 March. The customs entry used a tariff classification that resulted in CAD $208 in customs duty. The Canada Border Services Agency assessed CAD $170.40 in federal import GST. The broker’s invoice also included CAD $185 for clearance, CAD $96 in terminal charges and CAD $72 for storage. None of those amounts, taken alone, was impossible to explain. Together, they meant that the cash needed to release the shipment was CAD $731.40 above the freight figure I had used in my budget. The GST may be recoverable as an input tax credit if

the importer meets the requirements, but I still had to find the cash when the bill came due.

I do not say the forwarder did anything improper. The quote did say some charges were excluded. My mistake was treating that warning as a small caveat rather than as a large hole in the number. The forwarder could price the transport it controlled; the broker needed the paperwork and a classification; the CBSA assessment determined the duty and tax. Each participant had part of the answer, but I had no single document that brought those parts together before I agreed to the shipment.

I tried to close the gap. I asked for an all-in estimate and requested a breakdown of customs clearance and destination fees. I gathered the supplier invoice and shipment details for the broker. I also looked up the tariff classification and checked the Canada Border Services Agency information available to me. Canada’s commercial import process now uses the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management system, or CARM, for commercial accounting. Knowing the name of the system did not tell me what the final charges would be. I was still trying to reconcile a transport quote, a broker estimate and an assessment that arrived at different moments.

That is why I ask the Council to amend the standard in four practical ways:

• Require a pre-order landed-cost range. For a small trader, show the quoted transport, the likely duty range and basis, estimated import taxes, brokerage and known destination charges together. Mark assumptions clearly and say what could change the estimate.

• Show who supplies each number. Identify the party responsible for the freight quote, tariff-classification estimate, customs entry and destination fees. If a charge cannot yet be known, say why and identify the missing information.

• Give plain-language guidance and time to prepare. Explain which documents the importer must provide, how a tariff classification affects the estimate, when payment is due and which amounts may be recoverable only if eligibility conditions are met. Small traders need a realistic transition period when a new rule or tariff changes the calculation.

• Make the forwarder’s quote comparable. Ask forwarders to state whether destination handling, brokerage, storage, duties and taxes are included, excluded or not yet estimable. “Additional charges may apply” is not a useful landed-cost disclosure by itself.

I am not asking a forwarder to guarantee a customs decision it does not control. I am asking that uncertainty be made visible and bounded as far as the available information allows. A range with assumptions is more honest and more useful than a low transport figure that a new importer may mistake for the cost of getting goods to the door.