AIRS Updates Hit Chapter 01 and 07: What Changed for Live Animals and Onions

CFIA published two AIRS chapters on July 28: Chapter 01 (live animals) and Chapter 07 (vegetables). If you import horses, cattle, swine, sheep, goats, bison, or fresh onions with tops from the United States, the import conditions changed. That means the CFIA-specific data elements your broker files on the CAD changed. If your broker isn’t watching the AIRS feed daily, your next shipment may clear CBSA on the tariff side and still sit at the border waiting for OGD release.

What Changed

Chapter 01 modifications cover fourteen HS codes for live animals originating from the United States:

• 01.01 (horses, asses, mules, hinnies)
• 01.02 (bovine animals)
• 01.03 (swine)
• 01.04 (sheep and goats)
• 01.06.13 (camels and camelids)
• 01.06.19.2061 (cervidae)
• 01.06.19.2063.13 (bison)
• 01.06.19.2082.14 (zebras, all species)

Chapter 07 added new OGD extensions for two fresh onion tariff items:

• 07.03.10.3001.08 (onions with tops, fresh or chilled)
• 07.03.10.3001.17 (onions with tops, additional line)

The CSCB notice doesn’t detail exactly what shifted in the import conditions — permit requirements, health certificate formats, inspection protocols, or new data fields. That level of granularity lives in the CFIA AIRS portal itself, which your broker should be pulling down and reconciling against their CAD filing templates.

Why AIRS Changes Break Clearance Even When Duty Is Clean

CBSA releases goods. CFIA clears OGD-controlled goods. Two separate gates. You can pay duty, post bond, file a clean CAD with accurate HS classification and correct valuation, and still have your shipment sit in sufferance if the OGD side doesn’t clear.

For live animals, CFIA clearance is the long pole. Health certificates, veterinary inspection at the border, biosecurity attestations — all of that has to match current AIRS requirements or the animal doesn’t cross. If the July 28 update added a new data field to the permit requirement for bovine imports and your broker filed using last week’s template, CFIA will reject the OGD clearance request. CBSA won’t release until CFIA says yes.

For fresh produce, the risk is lower but the mechanism is the same. Onions with tops now have explicit OGD extensions in AIRS. If those extensions weren’t required last week and are required this week, your broker needs to refile or amend the CAD. That’s a delay, and if your onions are sitting in a non-climate-controlled holding area at the port, you’re paying drayage detention and watching shelf life evaporate.

What Your Broker Should Be Doing

A working broker watches the AIRS feed daily. CFIA publishes updates without fanfare — a chapter appears, the change log notes modifications, and that’s it. No email blast. No grace period. The new conditions are live immediately.

When an AIRS chapter affecting your tariff lines changes, your broker should:

1. Pull the updated chapter from the CFIA AIRS portal
2. Reconcile the new import conditions against their current CAD filing template for your goods
3. Update the OGD extension data fields in their system
4. Flag you if the new conditions require different documentation (permits, certificates, lab reports)

If your broker is filing CADs for live animal imports and didn’t catch the Chapter 01 update until a shipment got rejected, that’s a miss. AIRS monitoring is table-stakes brokerage work.

What You Should Be Doing

You don’t need to monitor AIRS yourself — that’s what you pay a broker for. But you do need to know:

• Which HS codes cover your imports
• Whether those codes are OGD-controlled (CFIA, Health Canada, ECCC, etc.)
• Who at your broker’s shop is the day-to-day contact for your account

When AIRS changes hit your tariff lines, your broker should tell you before you ship, not after CBSA holds the goods. If you’re importing live animals on a regular cadence — weekly cattle shipments, monthly equine transfers — and your broker hasn’t mentioned the July 28 Chapter 01 update, ask them directly whether it affects your filing.

For importers handling both live animals and temperature-sensitive produce, the intersection of CFIA clearance and drayage timing gets tight. If your onions with tops are coming in through the Port of Montreal and you’re using a Montreal sufferance warehouse for release prior to payment, any OGD delay compounds. CBSA releases the goods to sufferance, but if CFIA hasn’t cleared the OGD side, you can’t move them to distribution. You’re paying warehouse handling and drayage detention while your broker sorts the amended CAD filing.

Live Animal Imports Are High-Stakes

Livestock clearance is binary. If the paperwork is wrong, the animal doesn’t cross. You can’t park a horse in sufferance for three days while your broker amends the CAD. CFIA inspection happens at the first point of arrival, and if the import conditions aren’t met, the shipment gets refused or the animal gets held under CFIA control pending corrective action.

The fourteen HS codes in the July 28 Chapter 01 update cover the majority of live animal imports from the United States. Horses, cattle, swine, sheep, goats — these are routine cross-border movements for breeding stock, show animals, and commercial livestock. Bison, cervidae, camels, and zebras are niche but still active tariff lines, especially for zoos, game farms, and exotic breeding operations.

If your operation moves any of these animals and your broker hasn’t briefed you on what changed in the AIRS conditions, you need to ask. The cost of getting it wrong isn’t just detention and delay — it’s animal welfare, biosecurity compliance, and potential AMPS penalties if CBSA determines the import conditions were misrepresented on the CAD.

Onions Are Lower-Risk But Still OGD-Gated

Fresh onions with tops fall under CFIA plant health jurisdiction. The new OGD extensions in Chapter 07 likely relate to phytosanitary certificates, pest-free area declarations, or origin traceability. The risk to the importer is delay, not refusal. If the OGD data is missing or incorrect, CFIA will request an amended filing. That’s a few hours to a day, depending on how fast your broker moves and whether CFIA inspection is required.

For fresh produce importers operating on tight distribution schedules — grocery wholesalers, restaurant suppliers, farmers’ market aggregators — even a one-day CFIA hold can push product past the viable sell window. If your onions were destined for weekend market sale and they sit in sufferance until Monday because the OGD extension wasn’t filed correctly, you’ve lost the revenue window.

The fix is the same as for live animals: make sure your broker is monitoring AIRS and updating their CAD templates in real time.

Most AIRS updates are minor tweaks — a clarification to an existing permit requirement, a new checkbox in the electronic filing form. The July 28 Chapter 01 and Chapter 07 changes modify import conditions across sixteen tariff lines, which is a broader sweep than usual. That doesn’t mean the changes themselves are necessarily onerous, but it does mean more importers are affected. If you’re one of them, confirm with your broker that they’ve reconciled the updates against your filing profile.

We run AIRS reconciliation checks daily and flag clients when chapters affecting their goods change. Get in touch.

Source: CSCB