Do you ship to or from Canada? If so, you know there’s no shortage of paperwork and shipping rules involved when shipping across the U.S.-Canada border. In fact, it can be easy to miss something - and many shippers do. How can you avoid common cross-border shipping mistakes when moving goods to and from Canada? Here are five tips to get you started.

Cargo insurance is vital for the protection of your products that originate from or are destined for locations abroad. Aside from protecting your business from financial losses associated with lost or damaged cargo, insurance can protect you a variety of maritime shipping risks, such as the law of general average.

The Answer Could Very Well Be "YES"

A lot of new tariffs have come into effect this year, and more are scheduled. These increases are substantial, and if they affect the goods your company imports, you are well aware of how this is affecting your business operations.

For the past 3 years the ocean carriers operating in the Transpacific and Indian Subcontinent Trade Lanes have made attempts on the first day of each month and again on the 15^th day of the month to try and pass through rate increases to help them recover from years of unprofitability. The newly formed alliances that were finalized in 2017 helped them recover to a point where the carriers collectively recorded a year of profitability. That still left them with years of negative numbers to recover from.

Yet another round of tariff increases are being planned, which will add 10% duty to more than 6000 HTS#'s, affecting $200 Billion in new products. In scanning through the listing of tariff codes, there are a LOT of products affected, from foods to handbags to wood/paper products, fabrics, yarns, tile, glass, lots of additional iron/steel/aluminum products, various machinery, pharmaceuticals, in addition to televisions and bicycles. Please review the full listing at https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/301/2018-0026%20China%20FRN%207-10-2018_0.pdf. These could go into effect as soon as September 2018.

Few things make international shippers more worried than threats of tariffs and trade wars. And today, these topics are clearly at the top of business minds around the world.

In addition to the ongoing renegotiation of the North America Freed Trade Act, the future of international trade is up in the air. On an almost daily basis, new tariff announcements are being made by nearly every major economic power. 

The final listing of Chinese-origin products that will be hit with an additional 25% in duties under Sec. 301 was announced by the USTR on June 15^th. The effective date of these new tariffs will be July 6. Although the final listing was reduced somewhat, from 1333 items to 818, it still represents a large number of consumer-level items. The full tariff listing of affected products, along with descriptions, can be found HERE. Please know that we are expecting another round of 284 products to be added to this listing, but the exact timing of this has not yet been announced. This proposed listing can be found HERE.

In February 2018, we discussed solutions that can help shippers navigate the freight capacity crunch currently felt throughout the U.S. Current challenges with capacity, however, are not limited to freight moving domestically. Cross-border freight capacity between the U.S. and Mexico, for example, has become increasingly difficult to secure in recent years.

As most of North America is getting into the swing of a new year, the Chinese will soon be celebrating the beginning of a new lunar calendar. The "Year of the Dog," which begins on February 16, 2018, will bring about a standstill in manufacturing and freight movement in and out of the world's primary production center.