HS codes explained
The code decides the duty rate, which trade agreement applies, whether a surtax reaches you and which permits you need. Everything else follows from getting it right.
What the digits mean
Take 9403.40.00.10, wooden kitchen cabinets, and read it left to
right. Each pair of digits narrows the one before it.
| Digits | Level | In this example |
|---|---|---|
94 | Chapter | Furniture, bedding, lamps |
9403 | Heading | Other furniture and parts |
9403.40 | Subheading | Wooden furniture of a kind used in the kitchen |
9403.40.00 | Tariff item | The line that carries the Canadian duty rate |
9403.40.00.10 | Statistical line | Kitchen cabinets, for Statistics Canada |
The first six digits are the same everywhere. Canada, the United States, China and around two hundred other countries all use the same chapters, headings and subheadings, because they come from the World Customs Organization's Harmonized System. Digits seven onward are each country's own. So your supplier's six-digit code is a genuinely useful starting point, and their eight or ten digit code is not, because it is their country's tariff and not Canada's.
Canada and the United States are different past six digits
Canada calls the eight-digit line a tariff item and adds two more for statistics. The United States calls its schedule the HTS and carries its own eight and ten digit lines with its own rates. The same goods will have the same first six digits in both and different endings.
That is why we keep two separate lookups rather than pretending one answer serves both.
Classification is yours, legally
CBSA puts the responsibility for classification on the importer, not on the tool you used and not on your supplier. A supplier's code is a hint. Getting it wrong is expensive in both directions: too high and you overpay quietly for years, too low and you owe the difference plus interest when it is found.
If the goods are valuable or you will import them repeatedly, an advance ruling from CBSA settles it in writing and binds them. For a one-off shipment, a broker reading the actual goods is usually enough.
How to search well
- Name the article, not the category. "wooden kitchen cabinets" works. "machine parts" does not, and our tool will tell you so rather than pretend.
- Say what it is made of. Material decides the chapter more often than function does. Plates live in different chapters depending on whether they are ceramic, plastic, wood or steel.
- Use the words the schedule uses. It says "tableware", not "crockery".
- Then read the headings around your answer. The tool shows you the path down the tariff so you can see what it ruled out.
We band every answer, and we hold the band back when we should. A result marked "strong" means the words you typed are distinctive and were all found. If you type a category word, or a word we have never seen, we will not claim certainty, and we tell you which word stopped us. Being confidently wrong about a tariff code is the failure mode that costs money, so we would rather look unsure.
The chapters, all of them
If you do not know the words to type, start from the chapter.
Find your code
Search in plain words over CBSA's published descriptions, or open the tariff and work down through it. Free, no account, no email.
Related
What you actually pay
Duty, surtax, GST and the provincial part, in the order they stack.
Every Canadian surtax order
All nine in force, rechecked nightly.
What documents you need
Who requires each one, and why.
A search over CBSA's published descriptions, not a customs ruling. Classification is the importer's responsibility. Confirm with a licensed customs broker, or get an advance ruling from CBSA, before you rely on a code.