Customs and Cooking

My wife, partner and life long friend, Mindy, see BLOG:  https://customsandcooking.blogspot.com/2021/07/partner.html , had a great idea for dinner.  She was looking through one of her favorite cookbooks, "Joy of Kosher" by Jamie Geller and suggested that we make "Jumbo Meatball Garlic Bread Bites" (pages 186 and 187 of the cookbook). "Joy of Kosher":  https://www.amazon.ca/Joy-Kosher-Fresh-Family-Recipes/dp/0062207822   A simple recipe that we can use that can be prepared while everyone is getting ready for dinner. I sautéed some onions, garlic, red peppers and mushrooms to add as a topping.  It was a tremendous hit!!! Looked great (see picture) and tasted even better!!! Currently, there are several Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) (aka: Canada Customs) initiatives that importers and exporters should be getting ready for : - CARM (CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management Project) (See BLOG posting:  https://customsandcooking.blogspot.com/2021/05/chees...

For most, 1604.20.20.00 does not mean much. For others, the words "Gefilte Fish" also brings about glossed over stares. In the world of the Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature for Canada Customs, they mean the exact same thing. Looking at the US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), it does indeed list 1604.20.20.00 but for USCBP this code does not define Gefilte Fish. There are several interesting aspects to the above: - What is Gefilte Fish? - Why does the 10 digit code for Canada not define the same thing for the US and vice versa? - Over 70% of Canadian trade takes place with our Southerly neighbors. Yet, both have their own individual Customs authority with different rules and regulations. How can a company keep track of both sets of rules? Firstly, I very much enjoy gefilte fish. Gefilte fish is like a fish pate. It is made from deboned ground fish like pike, whitefish, carp and cod mixed with some sugar, salt and pepper along with fine...

My father had many interesting stories growing up. One that I particularly enjoyed was about when he had enough of the shenanigans that his class was up to and stood up to join in the melee. His teacher looked upwards, raised his hands and shouted, "If Zobin is joining in, then the class is over." Picking up his briefcase, the teacher stormed out of the class dejected for not being able to complete his lesson. One of my eighth grade English assignments was to narrate the play of Julius Caesar that my class was producing. The highlight was Act 3 Scene 1 where Brutus stabs and kills Caesar. I remember how precise my English teacher was with our pronunciation and expression when we were reading our lines in preparation for the play. Both of the above examples provide insight about "You also?" Caesar was so surprised that his friend Brutus joined the conspiracy against Caesar's life. How can a friend become an enemy? My dad's teacher was so astonished that his t...

One of my primary responsibilities is to understand the underlying reason of why a question is being asked. Time and time again, when I lead training sessions, we review questions and the attendees immediately start trying to answer those questions. After patiently waiting for the tidal wave of responses to simmer down, I start asking questions to the group. All of a sudden, there is a quiet stillness in the room as the participants are stunned at how many points were missed by just trying to respond to the initial question without clarifying what the question means, why it was asked and what the primary goal was when an answer is received. I'll give an example to illustrate the point. Question: Is there duty on importing plastic cookware containers into Canada? Simple answer... Yes Plastic goods usually carry a duty rate of 6.5%. Now, let's start asking the questions... - Where are these plastic cookware containers made? - Where are they shipped from? - What is the intended us...