Tariff Treatment - Origin -- Imported Goods

The Canadian Customs Tariff includes several separate tariff treatments. Goods imported into Canada may be subject to one of these tariff treatments. These tariff treatments are at first differentiated by preferential free trade agreement tariff treatments and non-free-trade tariff treatments.

Non-free trade agreement (FTA) tariff treatments
The Most-favoured Nation tariff treatment (MFN) is extended to all countries with which Canada has a trading relationship and which are signatories to the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT).
The General Preferential Tariff (GPT), the Caribbean Commonwealth Countries Tariff (CCCT) and the Least Developed Country Tariff (LDCT) are tariff treatments unilaterally extended to countries that have unique geo-political or economic conditions to which Canada has chosen to extend the benefit of reduced rates of duties.

The Australia and New Zealand Tariffs reflect Canada's close trading relationship with these commonwealth countries.

Preferential FTA tariff treatments
The United States Tariff (UST), Mexico Tariff (MT) and the Mexico-U.S. Tariff (MUST) are all preferential tariff treatments under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Chile Tariff (CT) is the preferential tariff treatment of the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA), the Canada-Israel Tariff (CIAT) is the preferential tariff treatment of the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) and the Costa Rica Tariff (CRT) is the preferential tariff treatment of the Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement (CCRFTA).

Tariff Notice TN-03
On 1 January 2003, the Government of Canada's Least Developed Country initiative will take effect, reducing the Least Developed Country Tariff (LDCT) on all qualifying goods to zero. Please refer to Customs Memorandum D11-4-4.

Goods imported from the few countries that are not members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), or from countries with which Canada has no other trade agreements, are subject to a 35% duty under the General Tariff.

Rules of origin are used to determine if goods qualify for a particular tariff treatment. For non-FTA tariff treatments, goods originate in a country, where there has been a transformation of the good during a production process and, where required, a minimum value added to the goods in the country where the goods were produced.

For FTA preferential tariff treatments, goods originate in the territory of a trading partner where there has been a change in tariff classification as required by a rule specific to the finished good and where required, a regional value-content provision.

Imported goods have to be classified correctly to see if they are covered under the tariff schemes. To apply the rule of origin for preferential NAFTA treatment, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) must also know the tariff classification of the materials used in the production of the imported goods.

To get the benefits of a particular tariff treatment, imported goods must also meet certification and direct shipment conditions.

The Customs Act includes an appeal process for decisions related to tariffs.

If you require personal assistance contact the Customs Client Services Office closest to you (see Related Reading: Customs Offices - Supplement or from Canada Border Service Agency's Web site for a list of addresses).