April 19th, 2025, marks an imperative date for Canadian Commercial Importers - the end of the 180-day grace period of Release Prior to Payment Privileges (RPP) for those importers without a form of financial security posted in their CARM Client Portal. For those importers, this blog is for you, as failure to do so will result in the CBSA rejecting your shipments at the border, and as a result, a lengthy in-term release process with increased costs.

What is an Incoterm®, and How It Could Save You Money?

Whenever the international marketplace becomes more expensive - be it through market pressure, new tariffs, or changing trade dynamics, reassessing your Incoterms® should always be high on the list of things you do in response. If the international marketplace is in a state of upheaval, examining your Incoterms® and determining if they still work for the current market realities can be one of the easiest and surest ways to save costs and offset a high-duty environment.

Global Trade Predictions for 2025

2024 was a year filled with big changes in the world of international trade. Whether it was a surge in labor action, new technologies, or new trade regulations, it will be remembered as a year where reevaluation and reassessment of common practices were brought to the fore as many businesses were faced with the question of whether they were really as adaptable as they once thought. With such a potent season of change behind us, the obvious question becomes - what can we expect ahead of us? To answer this question, the Trading Post has gathered three of our industry experts to give a prediction about what could be coming down the tracks in 2025.

The CBSA Trade Verification Priorities List

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) recently released its verification priority list for January 2025. In this week’s post, we are going to give you an overview of the contents of the recently released verification list, its importance to importers, and some tips for importers to stay compliant in the face of a Customs inspection.

Welcome to the 2025 Learning Center

The PCB Learning Center is one of PCB’s best service offerings, and today, we are eager to share what it has in store for 2025! If you aren’t familiar, our Learning Center provides a suite of free webinars over the course of the year. These webinars cover a wide range of topics in the world of international trade, so whether you are a brand-new importer looking for baseline information or an importing veteran looking to sharpen your skills, this is the best place to elevate your international trade for free.

The Top Ten Blogs of 2024!

It has been an incredible year in the world of global trade, and our blog posts have been no different. But what were the most popular posts of the year - and what game-changing issue dominated the top 10? In this week’s blog post, we find out, looking back at the year that was and what insights it can offer into the waiting adventure of 2025.

How To Manage Common CARM Portal Technical Difficulties

We are now a few weeks into CARM, and the full depth of its offerings is still being discovered, as are its challenges. It has, undeniably, been a learning experience for every person, business entity, and government agency that has engaged with this new system, and that period of learning is going to continue for some time. Fortunately, since the beginning, PCB has been on the frontlines of this new system with you, and our experts have been fielding questions and working with clients as we delve into this new world together.

Import Horror Story 2: Getting Out of CARM’s Way

Welcome back, dear readers, to our second annual PCB Halloween post! Someone at the CBSA has at long last solved the Lament Configuration, and love it or hate it - CARM has arrived. We are a week into this scary new regime, and the PCB CARM team has seen firsthand some of the jumpscares that our clients are experiencing with this new system. There are going to be tough lessons for Canadian commercial importers of all shapes and sizes to learn in the coming weeks, but as the grizzled old gas station attendant you stop to talk to before you arrive at your cousin’s cabin in the woods, allow us to fill in the gaps with some experience we’ve gained on our side of the phone. Let’s face our fears together, and by the end of this post, hopefully, you’ll be better equipped to stride into this brand-new psychological thriller we call CARM, and if we’re all lucky, we might just survive to see the trilogy.