International Trade committee  It's a pleasure to get to speak about this program. It's an important one for Canadian companies. As the member noted, steel is a very significant user of this program. This program operates under the policy guidance and direction of the Department of Finance under the Special I

International Trade committee  We work very closely with U.S. customs border patrol, because they are leaders in this field—

International Trade committee  There has been a shipment seized as part of a pilot.

International Trade committee  That shipment, in accordance with the way this prohibition is administered—

International Trade committee  It was released—

International Trade committee  —after CBSA recourse worked with the importer to determine that in fact the goods had not, on the balance of probabilities, been made with forced labour.

International Trade committee  The CBSA, as a matter of course, does not proactively publish risking information. We do risking at a shipment-specific level in accordance with the ban that's administered, the customs tariff. We are able to use information and research provided by ESDC as well as information fr

International Trade committee  We are aware of entities associated with risks of forced labour, and that is in the public domain. The U.S. CBP list, for example—the withhold release order that you are referencing—is a publicly available list. As such, we are aware of that list as well.

International Trade committee  I think it's perhaps an understatement, but I'll state it anyway: Enforcement of forced labour-related goods is a significant and complex undertaking. It really, fundamentally involves connecting the dots between the labour practices associated with the production of a specific g

International Trade committee  Yes. Thank you for the correction. Fundamentally, the challenge is that the U.S. has a legal and policy architecture that is different from what we have in Canada. Each jurisdiction has to operate in an enforcement context that is governed by those laws and policies.

International Trade committee  The U.S. system does operate on a rebuttable presumption, where the importer has the burden of proof to prove that the goods listed on the—

International Trade committee  It's a different standard that was available at the time of CUSMA. It's important to remember that the U.S. has been at this since the 1930s, so they have a deep experience base of practices, lessons learned—

International Trade committee  There is a significant difference in the experience base and the capability and expertise base in the U.S. They are different approaches that reflect the different jurisdictional realities and contexts. We have privacy and confidentiality laws that are different from those in the

International Trade committee  Yes, we're responsible for administering the customs procedures associated with the CUSMA agreement as referenced.

International Trade committee  Yes. That was as of July 1, with CUSMA coming into force.