Call me to call him to tell him to fax them...

What the Hell?

We sold some products to a client of ours in Maine. They, in turn, decided to ship some to their branch in Canada.

The customs broker working with our client called me to ask me to send him a NAFTA Certificate of Origin since it's going to Canada, and we didn't give our client one.

Well, considering we didn't know it was going to Canada and ONLY sold it to the branch in the U.S. a NAFTA COO is not required.

Instead, we call our client (who has never done a NAFTA COO), and I fill it out for him. My coworker faxes it to our client, tells him to sign it, and send it to the customs broker.

Several hours pass when I get a phone call from the customs broker informing me that although they received the COO from the client, it's not signed. Could I call our client to tell him to sign the COO and fax it back to the customs broker?

Okay.

Isn't that what the customs broker is getting paid for? The transaction of moving the product over the border is between our client and the customs broker...not US and the customs broker.

I kinda laughed at the customs broker when he asked, "well can you call him and tell him to sign the document and fax it back to me?"

"Um....yes [I can do your job for you]."

I reminded him, again, that we were merely the manufacturer. We were not involved in the transaction to Canada so further correspondence needed to be done between he (customs broker) and our client....NOT us.