The BC Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) is currently upgrading its customs clearance systems as part of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) initiative to transform the collection of tax and duty for goods imported into Canada. The upgrade will be completed in three phases:
- Phase 1: Import Wine, Spirits, and Refreshment Beverages – May 25, 2022
- Phase 2: Special Clearance Products – mid-June 2022
- Phase 3: Import Beer – to be determined
Please be advised that the Phase 1 systems upgrade for import wine, spirits, and refreshment beverages will require a brief outage of the imports application that forwards clearance approval requests to the CBSA. The outage will affect two business days:
- Friday, May 20; and
- Tuesday, May 24.
Note that Monday, May 23 is a statutory holiday.
What this means for vendors
Import wine, spirits, and refreshment beverages:
During this systems upgrade, the LDB will not be submitting import wine, spirits, and refreshment beverage purchase order (PO) clearance requests to the CBSA. Any clearance requests submitted to the LDB during the outage period will be processed beginning May 25, with the intention of maintaining our three-business day processing time KPI.
The LDB will make every attempt to transmit clearance requests to the CBSA prior to the outage start time on May 20. Vendors should instruct their Third-Party Warehouses to submit any priority PO clearance requests as soon as possible in advance of the outage.
Import wine, spirits, and refreshment beverage PO clearance submissions will resume as usual on Wednesday, May 25.
We will provide updates on this website if there are any changes to the outage schedule or upgrade plan.
Import beer and special clearance products:
Import beer and special clearance products (such as agent samples) are not affected at this time.
The Phase 2 special clearance products upgrade planned for mid-June is not expected to require a systems outage or otherwise affect operations.
For more information on CARM, visit: CARM: CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management project (cbsa-asfc.gc.ca)
For any questions, please contact CARMSupport@bcldb.com.
LDB Wholesale Operations