Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50892
FEATURE The regulations impose strict guidelines on importers to be read to produce a paper trail for products, notes the Blakes article. That's because the bill gives the minister of health the power to order an importer or manufacturer to conduct tests and submit documentation showing compliance. The minister may also require the importer to produce records from interna- tional suppliers. As foreign regulations differ from those in Canada, and equivalent regulations may not exist, such paper trails may not exist. Furthermore, importers would also have to track to whom products were sold and produce those for the minister when demanded. Failure to meet any of these requirements would be an offence under the legislation. "A large part of this is putting the responsibility on the im- porter here in Canada," Boscariol says, adding the legislation could be seen as protectionist. "It's cloaked as consumer protec- tion but it's designed to protect Canadian companies making the same product." "Thus," says the Blakes article, "in the absence of full co-op- eration by foreign suppliers, importers may have to choose be- tween conducting tests themselves and providing the requisite information, facing penalties, or choosing new sources of sup- ply from co-operating foreign suppliers." The Law of Banking Bradley Crawford, Q.C. "An excellent overview of payment, clearing and settlement law in Canada that brings clarity to an often complex area of law. A must have authority if working in this area." Penny-Lynn McPherson General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Canadian Payments Association This comprehensive treatise addresses the regulatory policies, the key institutions, the specialized and general-purpose payment systems and the decisions of the courts of Canada on the issues they raise. This work supplements and brings up to date the author's previous work on these topics. It includes entirely new chapters on: the law of payment including the permissible forms of payment, the principles of the law of payment, currency of payment, appropriation of payments, compelling payment, cost of late payment, penalties and proof of payment the law of money, including consideration of the many forms of value that qualify as "money", the legal characteristics of money, fungibility and the exceptions; tracing at common law, equity and under statute; foreign exchange controls, economic sanctions, counterfeit money and money laundering the business of banking, constitutional law issues surrounding banking activities, provincial control of banks' activities, meaning of "bank" in various contexts; "banking" by non-banks the banker/customer relationship, formation and termination, terms, online banking, duties and standards of care and confidentiality, mandatory statutory disclosures, deposits, administration of accounts, special fiduciary obligations, banks' unique rights and remedies payment under options and derivatives contracts, the rules and operations of Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation, risk assessment in derivatives markets Order your copy today! www.canadalawbook.ca CL1208 Crawford_Banking_CL 1-2h.indd 1 C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE DECEMBER 2008 11 11/19/08 1:35:15 PM Importers who violate the regulations face fi nes of up to $1 million, while those convicted of a criminal offence could see penalties of up to $5 million. If counsel cannot get foreign suppli- ers to adhere to Canadian regulations, those exporters may look elsewhere which also impacts importers. For example, Boscariol says: "The Chinese exporters can ignore all of this but at the end of the day, their products aren't going to get into Canada." And, says Swick, one has to question how that is going to affect ports such as Vancouver when B.C. has been pushing to become more involved with Chinese markets. Which brings us back to that front-end layout. Boscariol suggests in-house counsel work on with their clients. It's no longer a just case of getting product off the boat and to market, he explains. There are a number of web sites that may help. The Export and Import Controls Bureau maintains a section on the DFAIT web site (see page 9) which provides general information on the products which are subject to import controls. The bureau por- tion of the DFAIT web site also contains information on how companies can apply for an import permit, in circumstances in which a permit is required. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's web site is specifi cally geared to notices of interest to importers who want to perform due diligence searches in rela- tion to food and consumer safety concerns. IH and Payment in Canada