What is the form B3-3 used for?

According to established rules and guidelines, all commercial goods arriving to Canada must be declared at Canada Customs’ first port of entry into the country. This declaration will be done on a document known as a B3-3. This form is a detailed coding declaration requested by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

There are two recognized vocations for the document, a statistical and a billing purpose.

The government needs to account for imported goods into Canada, its origin and the quantity, in order to protect our Canadian economy. These goods are identified by a numerical code known as Harmonized System (HS). This identification (HS/SH) is numerical and a universal language used to classify goods and was established by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) located in Brussels in Belgium.

When you commercially import into Canada, you must complete a B3-3 form, used for statistical measurement of imported goods and for the billing of the duties and taxes applicable to these product. At the settlement of the duties and taxes, under the import declaration, a customs release will be transmitted and the goods will be released for Canadian consumption.

The statistics contained in this document will be used to establish our economic needs and the basis for negotiations between Canada and the different countries wanting to deal with us.

The B3-3 document is also used as a bill. The total of duties and taxes are described on the declaration; the payment will be made accompanied by this document. The settlement of all dues will be done under the transaction number reference indicated on the form.

Finally, this transaction number will allow a recall of the declaration by customs or the importer, in case of discrepancies, corrections or other transaction.