Surety Bonds

What Is CARM? CARM is a multi-year initiative implemented by Canada Border Services Agency  (CBSA). CARM stands for CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management and is intended to modernize and streamline the process of imports into Canada. Under CARM, importers will need to secure and post their own import bond in order to participate in the Release Prior to Payment Privilege (RPP). This is a significant change that impacts importers and customs brokers. Prior to CARM, customs brokers were allowed to extend use of their own customs bond to any importer. CARM Customs Bond Requirement Details CARM Phase 0  went into […]

Resources to Help Brokers Battle the Trade War While it’s no longer front page news fodder the tariff-centered trade wars continue. Change – if not outright volatility – continues to be an understatement as it relates to tariffs on goods imported to into the United States these days. Unfortunately businesses who have import activities and the customs brokers who assist them are caught in the middle, and they can become casualties of the ongoing trade wars. While U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is publishing plenty of resources, the dedicated people on the Customs Bond team at Roanoke are here […]

  eBond is the fastest customs bond filing system ever, and it’s about to be even faster and easier. The Road to eBond Customs bonds used to be issued on typewriters. Across the country entry writers for customs brokers would hammer out importer information onto green, pink, and yellow sheets of carbon paper, and these paper pages were delivered by messenger or mail to the CBP office at the local port. There the bonds waited for their Customs Control Number stamp and delivery back to the broker or agent. Then in the 2000’s, the bond filing process went digital. Processing […]

  Absent any implementation delay, starting on March 17, CBP will begin using its new version of the CBP Form 5106. The new version differs quite significantly from the current version, and many of the changes, while optional, involve collecting more details about the entity. For those that file the form by mail/email with CBP, the Revenue Division will not accept the old version after March 17. For customs brokers that file the information through ABI, there is a hard cutover with no overlap. To assist the trade with identifying the changes to the form – particularly the newly required […]

Roanoke Trade is pleased to introduce our Bond Sufficiency Calculator, a new tool to help you determine the appropriate continuous customs import bond amount. Due to the ongoing “trade wars”, tariffs have recently been increased on many imported goods and materials. These increased tariffs have precipitated a spike in mandated increases to customs bond amounts. Prior to the trade wars tariff implementation, it was rare for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to issue more than 100 to 200 mandated bond increase notices in a month. In September, CBP issued 2,300 notices! A bond’s sufficiency status is continually measured by CBP […]