How to Switch Customs Brokers in Canada

When It Makes Sense to Switch

Importers usually look at switching when their broker isn't keeping up with how they import. Common signs include:

• Slow answers when a shipment is held at the border
• Repeated corrections, reassessments or surprises on duty and tax
• Little help with CARM, RPP or classification questions
• Fees that are hard to follow from one invoice to the next
• Your volume, ports or products have changed and your broker hasn't

If any of these sound familiar, it's worth comparing. See Customs Brokerage Fees in Canada for the questions to ask about pricing.

What Stays the Same

Changing brokers doesn't change your business's own accounts with the government:

• Your Business Number and RM import-export account (BN15)
• Your CARM Client Portal account and the transaction history in it
• Your obligations as importer of record, including keeping records

What changes is who acts for you: the agency agreement you sign and the delegation you give in CARM.

How to Switch to Garden City, Step by Step

1. Tell us how you import

   Use the form below or call us. We'll ask about your goods, entries per month, main ports and your CARM and RPP setup.

2. Review your brokerage proposal

   We send a proposal for the services you need, together with the Power of Attorney & Agency Agreement and instructions for completing it.

3. Sign the agency agreement by hand

   It must be signed and dated by hand in ink by a company officer (sole proprietor, president, vice president or secretary/treasurer), with each page of the terms initialled. We can't accept digital signatures.

4. Delegate Garden City in CARM

   We send a business relationship request in the CARM Client Portal. Your business account manager then delegates authority to Garden City. See CBSA's Get started with CARM.

5. Check your RPP security

   Financial security for Release Prior to Payment can be posted by your business directly or through a licensed customs broker. If your current broker's security covers you, arrange a replacement before your first shipment with us, so your goods can still be released before payment. Not enrolled? See Release Prior to Payment.

6. Choose the cutover and tell your partners

   Pick the first shipment Garden City will clear. Shipments already on the way can finish with your current broker. Ask your suppliers and carriers to show us on the commercial invoice and bill of lading from that date:

   For Customs Clearance by:G C Customs BrokersNiagara Falls, OntarioPhone 888-481-2048Fax 888-481-2049

Official Sources

• CBSA: Get started with CARM
• CBSA Memorandum D17-5-1: Payment of duties and taxes on imported commercial goods