New ‘US reporting requirement would be burdensome,’ say Canadian exporters
‘A requirement for export permits or reporting on controlled items to the United States would adversely impact business in terms of lead time, and extra administrative burdens…and could even result in a loss of high quality engineering and manufacturing jobs in Canada.’ The findings come from a summary of responses to a consultation on a proposed shake-up of Canadian export controls, published early April, and seen by WorldECR. According to the Canadian government, the shake-up in Bill C-47 ‘strengthens Canada’s export control program and enables Canada to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).’
The consultation also heard that while Canadian suppliers ‘can verify end-user and end-use at various stages of the business life cycle,’ ultimately companies ‘cannot be held responsible to conduct end-use or end-user monitoring once items have been delivered, and they should not be penalized for reporting problems (i.e. by automatically canceling future permits).’
Amongst the changes contained in Bill C-47 are proposals ‘
- Establishing a framework to control brokering both in Canada and undertaken by Canadians in other countries;
- Requiring the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take into account ATT [Arms Trade Treaty] assessment criteria before issuing an export or brokering permit, and incorporating the criteria into legislation for the first time;
- Establishing a substantial risk test that requires the Minister to deny a permit if there is a substantial risk that the export would result in one of the negative consequences described in the criteria; and
- Increasing transparency on exports to the U.S.’
