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Customs & International Trade

Helping you stay ahead of a fast-evolving international trade landscape.

Specialized knowledge to simplify your international trade compliance

The customs compliance landscape is often challenging, and it's changing at a record pace. Trade tensions like tariff disputes and sudden policy changes complicate business planning, profitability, and resilience. Tighter restrictions, evolving regulations, supply chain disruptions, and complex free trade agreements like the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA/USMCA) create further difficulties for Canadian importers and exporters alike.

This can lead to delays in product delivery within the supply chain, overpayment of duties, uncertainty about duty recovery options, and submitting incorrect trade data elements to customs authorities, which can result in monetary penalties.

BDO's Customs & International Trade team provides comprehensive solutions for these issues. Carefully reviewing and planning a company's cross-border trade activities can reduce expenses through duty recovery or duty minimization. In addition, developing and implementing a robust customs compliance plan can positively affect the importer profile with customs authorities, reducing the chance for fines and costly border delays.

Our international trade advisory services

With customs regulations varying by country and constantly evolving, compliance can seem overwhelming. Our team identifies and remediates compliance issues, addresses enforcement actions promptly, and implements strategies to minimize the risk of penalties.

We deliver tailored solutions to help businesses proactively address complex import/export regulations and cross-border tax challenges, from duty relief to identifying the appropriate valuation methodology. Our import/export consulting services can help you reduce risks, avoid penalties, and maintain efficient global supply chains.

We help businesses reduce costs by identifying and leveraging opportunities to minimize duty expenses and enhance trade efficiencies. We can also support you through the process of recovering overpaid duties and leverage duty recovery options.

Our team helps you get ahead and stay head of key risks that can impact trade operations, like fluctuating tariffs and changing tax regulations. Taking a proactive stance, we help you address challenges before they escalate into costly customs audits, penalties, or potential legal dispute

Solutions across the customs triangle 

We provide seamless solutions across tariff classification, customs valuation and country-of-origin rules—the customs triangle—to help businesses enhance their global duty spend and reduce exposure.

Tariff classification
  • Review product classifications using the Harmonized System (HS Code) and relevant national and global guidelines.  
  • Identify regulatory requirements for tangible imported goods.  
Customs valuation
  • Advise on intercompany pricing policies to ensure alignment with customs valuation requirements and global transfer pricing standards. 
  • Develop integrated valuation strategies that support compliance with both customs and income tax obligations. 
  • Assist in leveraging alternative valuation methods to reduce overall duty exposure.  
Country of origin
  • Determine the economic nationality of goods to support preferential and non-preferential tariff treatment under trade agreements.  

Featured Customs & International Trade resources

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