CBP Form 434: NAFTA Certificate of Origin, Retired

Key Points

• CBP Form 434, NAFTA Certificate of Origin, is retired: NAFTA was replaced by the USMCA on July 1, 2020, and CBP Form 434 is no longer the document that supports a preference claim on new entries.
• USMCA has no prescribed government form; a certification of origin may be any document, including a commercial invoice, that carries the nine minimum data elements and is signed and dated by the certifier.
• The USMCA rules for importers, exporters, and producers sit in 19 CFR Part 182; the NAFTA rules in 19 CFR Part 181 are superseded for new claims and remain relevant mainly to legacy NAFTA-era entries, records, and audits.
• Recordkeeping did not disappear with the form: an importer claiming USMCA preference must be able to produce the certification and supporting origin records on CBP demand, as of October 2026.
• If a supplier still sends a completed CBP Form 434, treat it as a red flag that the origin file has not been updated, and request a USMCA certification instead.

On this page

1. What CBP Form 434 was and why it was retired
2. At a glance
3. What replaced CBP Form 434 under the USMCA
4. Who prepares a certification of origin and when
5. How a USMCA claim is filed and supported in the entry lifecycle
6. Common CBP Form 434 and USMCA certification errors
7. Where CBP Form 434 sits among other CBP forms
8. Frequently asked questions
9. What importers and brokers should do
10. Key references

CBP Form 434 is the retired NAFTA Certificate of Origin, the prescribed paper form an exporter or producer completed so an importer could claim NAFTA preferential tariff treatment on goods of Canada, Mexico, or the United States. CBP Form 434 was superseded when the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement entered into force on July 1, 2020, and preference claims since then rest on a USMCA certification of origin, which has no prescribed form and may be any document that carries nine minimum data elements. Importers, customs brokers, and compliance managers still encounter CBP Form 434 in archived entry files, supplier libraries, and audits of NAFTA-era transactions.

The links in this article go to the primary documents: the regulations and official CBP pages themselves. Read the source rather than a summary, and confirm the current status of any rule before you rely on it.

At a glance

• Full name: CBP Form 434, NAFTA Certificate of Origin.
• Status as of October 2026: retired for new preference claims; NAFTA was replaced by the USMCA on July 1, 2020. Confirm current status with CBP before relying on any legacy document.
• Who prepared or used it: the exporter or producer completed and signed it; the importer held it and produced it to CBP on request.
• When in the lifecycle: before or at the time of the preference claim, and then retained as an entry record subject to later CBP verification.
• System or channel: paper or scanned document exchanged between trading partners, not transmitted with the entry; today's USMCA certification works the same way.
• Governing authority: NAFTA rules at 19 CFR Part 181, now superseded for new claims by the USMCA rules at 19 CFR Part 182.
• Replacement: USMCA certification of origin with nine minimum data elements, no prescribed form.
• Related terms: CBP Form 368, CBP Form 6043, CBP Form 4457, and the other CBP forms listed below.

What CBP Form 434 was and why it was retired

CBP Form 434, the NAFTA Certificate of Origin, was a fixed-format certificate with numbered fields for the exporter, producer, importer, goods description, tariff classification, preference criterion, and blanket period, signed by the exporter or producer who certified that the goods qualified under the NAFTA rules of origin. Because the format was prescribed, compliance teams could check a NAFTA claim largely by confirming that every field on the form was filled in, that the blanket period covered the entry date, and that the signature and date were present. That structure is exactly what changed. When the USMCA entered into force on July 1, 2020, the agreement dropped the prescribed certificate in favor of a data-element approach, and CBP Form 434 ceased to be the instrument that supports a claim. The NAFTA implementing rules at 19 CFR Part 181 remain on the books for legacy purposes, while new claims are governed by 19 CFR Part 182.

What replaced CBP Form 434 under the USMCA

What replaced CBP Form 434 is not another form but a certification of origin that may appear on any document, including a commercial invoice, provided it contains nine minimum data elements and is signed and dated by the certifier. Described in words, those elements cover: the identity of the certifier and whether the certifier is the importer, exporter, or producer; the name, address, and contact information of the certifier; the same identifying information for the exporter, the producer, and the importer; a description of the goods together with their tariff classification; the origin criterion the goods meet; the blanket period, if the certification covers multiple shipments; and the authorized signature with the date and a certifying statement. Confirm the exact wording and content requirements of each element in the current text of 19 CFR Part 182 or with CBP before you build a template, because the regulation, not a form, is now the controlling checklist.

The practical consequence is that the burden shifted from form-filling to document control. There is no field numbering to audit against, so a compliance team reviewing a USMCA certification has to read it against the regulation and decide whether each required element is actually present and legible.

Who prepares a certification of origin and when

Where CBP Form 434 could only be completed by the exporter or producer, the USMCA certification that replaced CBP Form 434 may be completed by the importer, the exporter, or the producer, which is one of the more consequential differences for importer-of-record compliance programs. An importer who certifies is relying on its own knowledge of how the goods qualify, so it needs the supporting bill of materials, supplier statements, and production records in hand, not just a signed page. Timing sits at the same point in the entry lifecycle as the old CBP Form 434: the certification must exist and be in the importer's possession when the preference claim is made, and it must remain retrievable for the record retention period that applies to the entry. Confirm the applicable retention period and the verification procedures in 19 CFR Part 182 or with CBP.

How a USMCA claim is filed and supported in the entry lifecycle

A USMCA claim, unlike CBP Form 434 in its paper days, is made by transmitting the appropriate special program indicator on the entry summary through ACE, with the certification of origin kept on file rather than attached to the filing. CBP may later request the certification and the underlying origin evidence, typically through a request for information or a verification. If the importer cannot produce a valid certification covering the goods and the entry date, the claim fails and duties, fees, and potentially penalties follow. Brokers should treat the certification as a controlled entry record alongside the invoice and packing list, and should flag any file where the only origin document is a legacy CBP Form 434 covering a post-July 1, 2020 shipment.

Common CBP Form 434 and USMCA certification errors

The most common CBP Form 434 error seen today is simple anachronism: a supplier reissues the old NAFTA certificate because the template is still in its system, and the importer files it away without reading the date or the agreement name. Other recurring problems with USMCA certifications include a missing or unsigned certifying statement, a blanket period that does not cover the entry date, a goods description too generic to tie the certification to the specific merchandise, an omitted origin criterion, and a certification signed by a party whose role is not stated. Because there is no prescribed form to anchor the review, these gaps survive until CBP asks a question. If a request arrives, our guide to responding to a CBP Form 28 and the overview of prior disclosure set out the practical paths forward.

Where CBP Form 434 sits among other CBP forms

CBP Form 434 belongs to the family of CBP forms a broker touches around entry, custody, and cargo control, several of which remain fully active even though CBP Form 434 does not. Adjacent forms include CBP Form 3173, Application for Extension of Bond for Temporary Importation, the request to extend the one-year TIB period in one-year increments up to three years total; CBP Form 300, Bonded Warehouse Proprietor's Submission, the proprietor's annual inventory reconciliation submission; CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, which records delivery of merchandise into a bonded warehouse or container freight station under CBP supervision; CBP Form 368, Collection Receipt, CBP's receipt for a payment made at a port; CBP Form 6051D, Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence, the receipt describing property CBP has seized; and CBP Form 4457, Certificate of Registration for Personal Effects Taken Abroad, the pre-departure registration of serial-numbered personal items. On the cargo arrival side sit CBP Form 7533, Inward Cargo Manifest for Vessel Under Five Tons, Ferry, Train, Car, Vehicle, etc. used at the land border; CBP Form 7509, Air Cargo Manifest, now filed electronically through ACE air manifest with the paper form as the fallback; CBP Form 1302, Inward Cargo Declaration, the vessel cargo manifest the master files on arrival; and CBP Form 3171, Application-Permit-Special License Unlading-Lading-Overtime Services, the carrier or agent request for permission to unlade or lade and for CBP services outside regular hours.

Frequently asked questions

Is CBP Form 434 still valid?

CBP Form 434 is not the operative document for preference claims on goods entered after NAFTA was replaced by the USMCA on July 1, 2020. A completed CBP Form 434 may still matter as a historical record for NAFTA-era entries, verifications, and audits, and those legacy transactions are addressed by the NAFTA rules at 19 CFR Part 181.

Can I use CBP Form 434 as a USMCA certification template?

Using CBP Form 434 as a template is risky because the form's fields were built for NAFTA and do not map one to one onto the nine minimum data elements a USMCA certification must contain. Build the template from the data-element requirements in 19 CFR Part 182 instead, and confirm the current text before you distribute it to suppliers.

Does a USMCA certification have to be on a separate document?

No. Unlike CBP Form 434, which was a standalone prescribed certificate, a USMCA certification may appear on any document, including a commercial invoice, as long as it carries the nine minimum data elements and is signed and dated by the certifier.

Who keeps the certification that replaced CBP Form 434?

The importer claiming preference must be able to produce the certification that replaced CBP Form 434 when CBP asks, which in practice means the importer, not only the broker, holds a retrievable copy with the supporting origin records. Confirm the applicable retention period in 19 CFR Part 182 or with CBP.

What importers and brokers should do

• Audit the supplier origin library for any CBP Form 434 attached to a post-July 1, 2020 shipment and replace it with a USMCA certification built from the nine minimum data elements.
• Create a short internal checklist from the current text of 19 CFR Part 182 and use it to review every certification before the claim is transmitted, since there is no prescribed form to validate against.
• Decide, per supplier, who certifies: importer, exporter, or producer, and make sure whoever signs holds the production records that back the origin criterion.
• Keep NAFTA-era CBP Form 434 records accessible for the retention period applicable to those legacy entries, and confirm that period with CBP if your files predate the USMCA transition.

Key references

• 19 CFR Part 182: the USMCA implementing regulations, including the certification of origin requirements that replaced CBP Form 434.
• 19 CFR Part 181: the NAFTA regulations under which CBP Form 434 operated, superseded for new preference claims.
• CBP Trade: CBP's trade program pages, including forms, free trade agreement guidance, and CSMS messages.
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States: the official tariff schedule used to classify goods described in a certification of origin.