Electronic bills of lading (CT-e) in the Brazilian cabotage

Although the use of electronic bills of lading (conhecimento de transporte eletrônico, in Portuguese, best known as “CT-e”) have been around for a decade, there is an increasingly number of queries from foreign shipowners, operators and P&I clubs regarding the use of the CT-e to cover carriage of goods by sea between Brazilian ports and terminals.

Basically, the CT-e is a paperless tax document to cover cargoes carried in all modes of transport within Brazil and its printable, abridged version is the bill of lading’s auxiliary document (documento auxiliar de conhecimento de transporte – DACTE) which physically accompanies the goods until their delivery to the consignee and serves to collect the signature of the consignee/service hirer upon delivery. The DACTE is also used to support bookkeeping of service hirers who do not use electronic tax document platforms.

Although the cargo value is expressed on the CT-e, it does not mean to be an ad valorem bill of lading. Indeed, unlike an ordinary bill of lading, the CT-e does not need to be surrendered by the consignee to obtain the delivery of the goods. While CT-e stands for electronic bill of lading, the International Group of P&I Clubs (IG) agreed that it is not an electronic trading system in the definition of the IG’s Pooling Agreement and brings no implications in the cover afforded by the P&I clubs to the members whose vessels are chartered to Brazilian carriers and engaged in the domestic cabotage trade.

Read the complete circular here.

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