HPAI Restrictions Lifted for Argentina — What Actually Changes for Canadian Poultry Importers

Argentina Comes Off the HPAI List

CBSA and CFIA lifted Canada’s highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) import restrictions for Argentina effective April 27, 2026. The country is back on the official HPAI-free list maintained by CFIA, which means raw and unprocessed poultry products from birds slaughtered after that date can enter Canada again under the usual CFIA permit and inspection regime.

The carve-out: anything slaughtered between February 23, 2026 and April 27, 2026 stays ineligible. That 63-day window is hard-coded into CFIA’s system, and you will get stopped at OGD release if the slaughter date on your export health certificate falls inside it.

If you’re filing CADs for Argentine poultry right now, the slaughter date and the country disease-status date both matter. CBSA doesn’t make the call on admissibility here — CFIA does — but the cargo won’t release until CFIA clears it in AIRS (Automated Import Reference System), and that lookup pulls the slaughter date from the certificate you uploaded at eManifest time.

What Gets Flagged, What Doesn’t

CFIA’s OGD hold logic for poultry is tied to HS classification, country of origin, and product type. The most common Argentine codes we see are HS 0207 (meat and edible offal of poultry) and HS 0210.99 (salted or dried poultry). Processed products that have been fully cooked or rendered — HS 1601/1602 — usually bypass the raw-meat HPAI restrictions, but you still need a Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence on file and the right establishment number on the certificate.

Raw poultry hits a three-stage gate:

1. eManifest OGD flag. ACI or PARS cargo with HS 0207 from Argentina triggers an automatic CFIA referral. Your trucker won’t get a green light until CFIA reviews the export health certificate and slaughter date.
2. AIRS certificate check. CFIA pulls the certificate you uploaded (or that the exporter transmitted via TRACES-equivalent) and verifies the slaughter date, establishment code, and Argentina’s disease-free status on the reference date.
3. Physical exam sample rate. Even if the paperwork clears, CFIA can pull a sample for lab testing. We’ve seen exam rates on Argentine poultry sit around 8–12% in the first 90 days after a country comes back online post-outbreak. That’s higher than the 2–4% baseline for longstanding HPAI-free origins like the U.S. or France.

If the slaughter date is inside the Feb 23–Apr 27 window, CFIA issues a “Notice of Non-Compliance” and the shipment gets re-exported or destroyed. You eat the cost of drayage, storage, and any penalties your supplier’s insurance doesn’t cover. There’s no discretionary release. The rule is binary.

How to Handle Cargo Already In-Transit

We’re three weeks past the April 27 lift date, so most of the pipeline risk is behind us. But if you have a container that shipped from Buenos Aires in early April and is arriving Montreal this week, check the slaughter date on the health certificate before the truck crosses.

If it’s inside the blackout window, call your customs broker before arrival and decide whether to divert, re-export, or abandon. Abandonment to CBSA is cheaper than paying Montreal sufferance warehouse dwell fees for 30 days while you negotiate a return with the exporter. CFIA won’t let it release, and CBSA won’t let it sit in a non-bonded facility without a disposal plan.

If the slaughter date is April 28 or later, you’re clear. File the CAD as normal, upload the certificate in AIRS, and expect release within 24 hours unless CFIA tags it for physical exam. If it does get examined, plan for a two-to-three business day hold at the sufferance warehouse while the sample goes to the lab in Saint-Hyacinthe. That’s standard for OGD poultry exams, not a signal that anything is wrong.

CUSMA Origin and Tariff Treatment

Argentina is not a party to CUSMA, CETA, or CPTPP. Poultry from Argentina enters under MFN (most-favoured-nation) duty rates, which for fresh/chilled chicken (HS 0207.14) currently sit at 5.0% plus the agricultural over-access tariff if you’re outside a tariff-rate quota allocation. Frozen cuts (HS 0207.27) are the same.

If you’ve been importing U.S. or Brazilian poultry under a TRQ and you’re shifting to Argentina as a spot buy, make sure your importer of record has the TRQ allocation paperwork on file with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. If you don’t, you’ll pay the over-quota rate (238% for chicken, per the Canada Gazette TRQ schedule), and there’s no retroactive relief once the CAD is finalized in CARM.

We’ve had two importers this month try to declare Argentine poultry under a CUSMA preference claim because the exporter shipped through a U.S. cold-storage consolidator in Miami. That doesn’t work. The country of origin for tariff purposes is where the birds were slaughtered and processed, not where the container was stuffed. CBSA will correct it on verification, you’ll owe the duty difference plus interest, and if it happens twice in a rolling year you’re looking at an AMPS penalty under D11-4-2 for incorrect origin claims.

What to Watch: HPAI Status Can Flip Fast

Argentina went onto the HPAI restriction list February 23 after an outbreak was reported at a commercial poultry facility in Buenos Aires province. CFIA’s protocol is to suspend the entire country the day the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) confirms community transmission, then lift restrictions 60 days after the last detected case, assuming surveillance stays clean.

That timeline is not negotiable, and it’s faster than most importers expect. If you run a standing purchase order for Argentine poultry and you didn’t catch the February notice, you may have had shipments rejected in March and April without knowing why until the trucker called from the border.

The lesson: if you import raw poultry or eggs from any non-North American origin, bookmark CFIA’s HPAI country status page and check it monthly. The disease moves faster than your supplier’s export documentation cycle, and CBSA won’t release cargo from a country that flipped onto the list after your purchase order was signed but before the birds were slaughtered.

Filing and Documentation Checklist

If you’re bringing in Argentine poultry post-April 27, your CAD needs:

• HS classification to six digits minimum (0207.14, 0207.27, etc.). If you’re not sure, use our HS classification tool or ask. Misclassification on poultry pulls automatic CBSA verification because the tariff spread is wide.
• Country of origin as Argentina (AR). Not the U.S., not Uruguay, even if it transshipped.
• CFIA export health certificate uploaded in AIRS before or at time of eManifest transmission. The certificate must show slaughter date April 28, 2026 or later, and the establishment code must appear on CFIA’s registered foreign establishment list.
• SFC licence number for your importer of record. If you’re an NRI (non-resident importer) and you don’t have an SFC licence because you’re not a Canadian food business, you can’t import raw poultry. Period. You need a resident consignee with the licence to act as IOR.

If any of those four pieces are missing or wrong, CFIA holds the shipment and you pay storage until it’s fixed. We see the SFC licence trip up new importers most often, especially when a U.S. parent company tries to file as NRI without understanding that CFIA doesn’t allow it for this commodity group.

Bottom Line

Argentina is back on the HPAI-free list. Poultry slaughtered after April 27 clears normally. Anything slaughtered in the 63-day blackout window is still ineligible and will be refused at the border. If you’re not sure which side of the line your next shipment falls on, pull the export health certificate and check the slaughter date before the container moves.

We file poultry CADs and handle CFIA OGD releases daily. If you need a hand with Argentine origin documentation or you want to talk through SFC licence requirements for a new product line, get in touch.

Source: CSCB