eManifest Portal
eManifest Portal Terms and Conditions

I. General

These Terms and Conditions outline the obligations and responsibilities that must be followed as a condition for accessing the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) eManifest Portal and transmitting prescribed information to the CBSA.

The CBSA reserves the right to make any modifications to the eManifest Portal or to these Terms and Conditions at any time, as required.

II. Privacy Statement

The CBSA is committed to protecting the privacy rights of individuals, including safeguarding the confidentiality of information provided by individuals and Trade Chain Partners.

The eManifest Portal offers an alternative transmission option to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for the trade community to electronically transmit their pre-arrival information. The CBSA developed the eManifest Portal to help clients comply with eManifest requirements and ease their transition from paper reporting to pre-arrival electronic data transmission. The eManifest Portal features many self-serve functions that allow the trade community to store data, query, and verify the status of their shipments through the Internet.

Submission of any personal information as part of your transmission constitutes your consent and acknowledgement that you, as a carrier or freight forwarder, have informed all individuals whose personal information is listed in your transmission with proper and adequate privacy protection notices and that you have secured their consent to the collection, use, retention, and disclosure of this personal information by the CBSA.

The personal information is collected under the authority of the Customs Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 1 (Second Supp.)), Sections 7.1, 8, 8.1 as well as the Reporting of Imported Goods Regulations for the purpose of determining the admissibility of commercial goods, including conveyances and persons prior to their arrival in Canada. Pursuant to Section 107(1), the information provided may be disclosed to other government organizations, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Individuals have the right to access and/or can make corrections of their personal information under the Privacy Act. For more information, please visit Make an access to information or personal information request page.

III. Portal Scope

The eManifest Portal is available to highway carriers, air carriers, freight forwarders, brokers and warehouse operators. Highway carriers and freight forwarders can submit pre-arrival data to the CBSA while brokers and warehouse operators can only view data they have received from the CBSA. Air carriers are treated as highway carriers in the Portal and can only submit highway conveyance data to the CBSA in the event of a flying truck scenario. Rail and marine carriers do not have any functionality or ability to access the Portal.

IV. Business Account

To interact with and transmit prescribed information to the CBSA via the eManifest Portal, one must have a Business Account. Business Accounts are created by an Account Owner after registering with the CBSA in the prescribed manner and form, and being issued a Client Identifier (e.g. carrier code for highway carriers and freight forwarders, account security number for brokers and sublocation code for warehouse operators) and Shared Secret.

V. Account Roles

A. Account Owner

The Account Owner is an eManifest Portal user registered by the CBSA and who has been issued a Client Identifier and a Shared Secret.

An Account Owner may include any "person" as defined in section 2 of the Customs Act (Canada).

The Account Owner has different access privileges depending on their business type. They are defined as follows:

All Account Owners (except for warehouse operators) have the authority to update the Business Account Information in the Portal.

All Account Owners, no matter their Business Type, may authorize Proxy Account Owners and Account Users access privileges to their associated Business Account.

All Account Owners, no matter their Business Type, may authorize Account Browsers access privileges to their associated Business Account.

All Account Owners may at any time remove the access privileges it has granted to a Proxy Account Owner, Account User or Account Browser.

B. Proxy Account Owner

The Proxy Account Owner is a user granted privileges by an Account Owner.

All Proxy Account Owners, no matter their Business Type may, on behalf of and as agent for the Account Owner, authorize and remove access privileges to Account Users and Account Browsers in the associated Business Account.

C. Account User

The Account User is a user granted privileges by an Account Owner or a Proxy Account Owner.

D. Account Browser

The Account Browser is a user granted read-only access privilege by an Account Owner or Proxy Account Owner in the associated Business Account.

VI. Responsibilities

A. Account Owner

  1. The Account Owner is solely legally liable for all prescribed information transmitted to the CBSA through the eManifest Portal regarding its associated Business Account.
  2. The Account Owner is solely responsible for authorizing any Proxy Account Owner, Account User or Account Browser access to its associated Business Account for the purposes of transmitting prescribed information to (applies to highway carriers and freight forwarders only), or receiving confirmation information from, the CBSA regarding its associated Business Account.
  3. Proxy Account Owners and Account Users authorized by the Account Owner act merely on behalf of and as agent for the Account Owner for all prescribed information transmitted to the CBSA through the eManifest Portal regarding its associated Business Account.
  4. The Account Owner is, solely, responsible for safeguarding its eManifest Portal information, including Client Identifier, Shared Secret, and all other of its associated Business Account information.
  5. The Account Owner shall keep its associated Business Account information with the CBSA up-to-date and shall notify the CBSA immediately upon any change to its business name, addresses and/or contact information.
  6. The Account Owner shall notify the CBSA immediately upon any change to its corporate structure or organization under federal or provincial corporations or company’s legislation which may result in the CBSA requesting that it make a new application for a new Business Account.
  7. The Account Owner shall indemnify the CBSA, its employees and agents, from all claims, suits, demands, actions or other proceedings which the Account Owner may at any time suffer or incur,
    1. by the actions of its agent, a Proxy Account Owner, an Account User or an Account Browser regarding its associated Business Account; or
    2. in the event of an eManifest Portal systems failure or lack of system availability.

B. General

  1. All Business Account users are responsible for ensuring a secure internet connection is used to connect to the eManifest Portal and transmit to the CBSA.
  2. Any Business Account user will have to accept these Terms and Conditions every time they seek to access the eManifest Portal. Only by selecting the "I Accept" button will the user be able to proceed into the eManifest Portal and the associated Business Account.
  3. Any Business Account user selecting the "I Accept" button confirms that the user, either in its own right as the Account Owner or on behalf of and as agent for the Account Owner:
    1. accepts these Terms and Conditions;
    2. consents to be legally bound by these Terms and Conditions; and
    3. consents to the disclosure of electronic notification information by the CBSA to those users specifically identified in the associated Business Account for a specific shipment.
  4. Business Account users will not access the eManifest Portal by any "robot", "spider", "scraper" or other automated means.
  5. Business Account users shall not,
    1. impose, or attempt to impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load into the eManifest Portal; or
    2. misuse the eManifest Portal in any way including interfering or attempting to interfere with the proper working of the eManifest Portal as effected by the CBSA, or circumventing or attempting to circumvent any measure effected by the CBSA to prevent or restrict access to the eManifest Portal.

      The authority to determine whether (a) and/or (b) has occurred remains solely that of the CBSA.
  6. All prescribed information transmitted to the CBSA through the eManifest Portal by all Business Account users must be true, accurate and complete, and transmitted in the prescribed time and manner.
  7. All Business Account users shall comply with the Customs Act and any other Act of Parliament administered or enforced by the CBSA, or regulation issued thereunder.
  8. Portal Users who choose to Manifest Forward their Trade Documents are responsible for providing the correct Secondary Notify Party ID (SNP ID) details which include the Client Identifier and Business Type. The CBSA cannot be held accountable in the event that the information forwarded reaches an unintended recipient due to an incorrect SNP ID being entered.

VII. Record Keeping

The Account Owner is responsible for complying with all Customs Act record keeping requirements and the eManifest Portal is not to be used as a record keeping tool.

VIII. Non-Compliance

Non-compliance with any of these Terms and Conditions for the use of the eManifest Portal by any Business Account user may result in cancellation of the associated Business Account, and any other enforcement action authorized by law.

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