Bringing goods in from the EU is not the same as ordering from the US: the $40/$150 courier bands do not apply, duty depends on where goods originate — not where they shipped from — and CETA's zero duty needs the exporter's origin declaration in your hands. The thresholds, the paperwork, and the traveller exemptions, for personal buyers and small businesses.
Applies in: across Canada
Trade between Canada and the European Union runs under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, which has applied provisionally since September 2017. That does not make importing from Europe the same as importing from the United States. The courier thresholds are different, the proof of origin works differently, and the most common expensive mistake — treating "shipped from the EU" as "made in the EU" — has no equivalent in the US guides, because the US agreement's paperwork is different. This guide covers the Europe-specific ground for two readers: a person buying for themselves, and a small business bringing in goods to sell. It does not replace the general commercial import guide, which carries the full CBSA step sequence; it tells you what changes when the other end of the shipment is in the EU.
This guide was grounded on CBSA, Canada Revenue Agency, Global Affairs Canada, and Trade Commissioner pages opened on October 29, 2026, listed under Sources. Recheck those pages after the Canada-EU summit on October 30, 2026: summit deliverables may change the practical position for Canada-EU trade, and nothing about them is stated here because none had been published when this guide was written. The recheck date for the thresholds and procedures themselves is the next change to any page in the Sources list — check the CBSA pages before any shipment large enough that a wrong duty rate would hurt.
Three charges, three different rules. Duty is a tariff on the goods, set by the Customs Tariff for the goods' classification, and CETA can reduce it to zero — but only for goods that originate in the EU under CETA's rules of origin, and only when the origin declaration is in the importer's possession. Tax is separate: GST, or HST in a participating province, plus PST where it applies, is charged on imported goods on top of any duty, and CETA does not remove it. Carrier charges are a third layer and are not government charges at all: the courier or Canada Post charges its own fee for clearing the parcel, and that fee can exceed the tax on a low-value parcel. Every decision in this guide is about which of the three applies to your shipment, and the answer turns on four facts: the route (mailed, couriered, or carried), the value in Canadian dollars, the origin of the goods, and whether the shipment is personal or commercial.
The CBSA draws the line on purpose, not on parcel size. Goods for your own or your household's use, bought for yourself, follow the personal rules in Steps 2 and 6. Goods you bring in to sell, use in your business, or supply to customers are commercial imports, and the commercial steps in Step 5 apply from the first shipment — there is no small-quantity exception that turns a resale shipment into a personal one. A side business ordering stock from a supplier in Portugal, a maker importing components from Italy to build products for sale, and a retailer restocking from a distributor in the Netherlands are all commercial importers, even if the first order is a single carton. If you are unsure which side of the line an order falls on, the question to ask is what happens to the goods after they arrive: if the answer is "I sell them," it is commercial, and the business number, CARM registration, and accounting declaration are not optional extras.
The route matters as much as the purpose. A personal parcel shipped to your door, a commercial shipment on a freight forwarder's bill of lading, and a suitcase of purchases carried through an airport are assessed under different thresholds even when the goods are identical. Name the route before you check any number, because every threshold in this guide belongs to one route only.
For a parcel from Europe, the operative number is CAN$20, and it applies to both mail and courier. Under the Postal Imports Remission Order, an item mailed to you worth CAN$20 or less in value for duty carries no duty and no tax. Over CAN$20, duty, GST or HST, and any PST apply on the item's full value — not just the amount over $20. The courier rule for shipments from outside the United States and Mexico is the same line: CAN$20 or less means no duty and no tax under the Courier Imports Remission Order, and over CAN$20 means duties and taxes apply on the full value. The higher courier bands you may have seen — no tax up to $40, no duty up to $150 — belong to CUSMA and to shipments from the United States and Mexico only. They do not apply to a parcel from France, Germany, Poland, or any other EU member state, however the seller's checkout describes them.
Three qualifications decide whether the $20 line helps you at all. First, the value is the value for duty in Canadian dollars, for the whole shipment under a single transaction — splitting one order into several parcels so each sits under $20 does not create several exemptions. Second, some goods do not qualify for the $20 remission at any value: tobacco, alcoholic beverages, cannabis and vaping products, and books, periodicals, and magazines in the mail stream, along with goods ordered through a Canadian post office box or intermediary, are assessed from the first dollar. Third, a shipment that needs a permit, licence, or inspection from another government department is not released until that requirement is met, whatever its value — the $20 line waives charges, not admissibility.
The gift rule is separate and narrower than people expect. A gift qualifies only when a friend or relative sends it to you personally and includes a card or other notice indicating that it is a gift. A gift sent by mail worth CAN$60 or less enters with no duty and no tax; over CAN$60, duty and tax apply on the amount over $60 — a $200 gift is assessed on $140. Tobacco, alcoholic beverages, advertising material, and anything sent by a business are excluded, a purchase is not a gift because the sender wrote "gift" on the customs form, and the $60 gift exemption cannot be combined with the $20 mail exemption on the same goods.
On top of any duty and tax, expect the carrier's fee. Canada Post charges a handling fee on mail items where duty or tax is assessed; a private courier charges its own brokerage fee, set by the company, for clearing the parcel. Neither fee is a CBSA charge, and neither is waived by CETA. Before ordering, ask the seller or carrier what the clearance fee will be for your route — on a $35 parcel it can be the largest single charge in the landed cost — and check whether the courier lets you clear the parcel yourself at a CBSA office instead, which some couriers allow if you ask before the parcel clears.
CETA eliminates customs duties on most tariff lines traded between Canada and the EU. When it took provisional effect, it immediately eliminated duties on the large majority of tariff lines, with the remainder phased out over transition periods of three, five, or seven years for items such as ships, some automotive products, and certain agricultural goods, and with sensitive agricultural products — poultry and eggs are excluded, and EU dairy enters under quotas with above-quota tariffs remaining — treated separately. For a small importer, the practical reading is this: duty at zero is the normal outcome for an originating industrial good, and the exception worth checking is always an agricultural or food product, where quotas and exclusions still bite. No single percentage in this guide should be used to price a specific product; the rate for your goods is the CETA rate for their 10-digit classification in the Customs Tariff, and that is the only figure that binds.
What CETA does not do is equally load-bearing. It does not remove GST or HST, PST, or excise duties and taxes. It does not waive permits, inspections, labelling, or product-safety rules administered by other departments — food, plants, animals, health products, and firearms all carry their own requirements, and a zero duty rate does not admit goods that another department has not cleared. It does not remove the need to classify the goods, determine their value for duty, or prove their origin. And it does not turn a non-originating good into an originating one: CETA is not a customs union, and goods must continue to satisfy the rules of origin to qualify. A seller's assurance that goods are "EU duty-free" is worth exactly the origin declaration behind it, which is the next step.
CETA uses self-certification. There is no government-issued certificate of origin to apply for. Instead, the exporter completes an origin declaration — the text set out in Annex 2 of the CETA Protocol on rules of origin and origin procedures — on an invoice or another commercial document, declaring that, except where otherwise clearly indicated, the products covered by the document are of EU preferential origin, with the place and date and the exporter's signature and printed name, and a customs authorisation number where the exporter has one. The declaration states the period it covers when it is completed for multiple shipments of identical originating products; a single declaration can cover such shipments for up to 12 months, with the period stated on the declaration itself.
Two conditions make the declaration usable. First, the goods must actually meet the product-specific rule of origin for their Harmonized System classification, in Annex 5 of the Protocol, or qualify under an origin quota in Annex 5-A. The rule is product-specific: it turns on what was done to the goods in the EU, what inputs were used, and where those inputs came from. "Assembled in the EU from imported parts" may or may not qualify, depending on the rule for that classification — which is why the check is per product, not per supplier, and why a supplier who qualifies on one line may not qualify on the next. Second, the importer must have the declaration in its possession when claiming the preference. The CBSA's CETA implementation notice states this directly, and the workable arrangement is to have the seller put the declaration on the commercial invoice before the goods ship, so the claim and the proof travel together. If the goods are routed through a third country on the way to Canada, check the direct-transport position as well: CETA's origin procedures contemplate goods moving directly or remaining under customs control in transit, and a consolidation or repacking stop outside the EU is the point at which that check stops being theoretical.
If the CBSA verifies the claim, it looks at the import accounting documents and the exporter's or producer's records to confirm the goods qualify. Keep the origin declaration, the commercial invoice, the bill of materials or supplier declarations behind it where you have them, and the classification notes, for six years. A claim that cannot be substantiated when verified is reassessed at the non-preferential rate, and the reassessment can reach back over goods already sold — which is why the declaration is obtained before the order, not chased after the assessment arrives.
Commercial importing from Europe follows the same CBSA sequence as importing from anywhere else; CETA changes the duty rate, not the sequence. In order: obtain a nine-digit business number from the Canada Revenue Agency and an import-export (RM) program account, and register the business in the CARM Client Portal. Identify the goods and confirm admissibility — whether any other department requires a permit, certificate, or inspection, and whether the goods are controlled or prohibited. Determine the 10-digit tariff classification for each type of good from the Customs Tariff, determine the value for duty, and determine the duty at the CETA rate for that classification and origin, with the origin declaration in hand, plus GST or HST. Arrange shipping and confirm the carrier's cross-border requirements. On arrival, the goods are reported and released, and the import is then accounted for with a Commercial Accounting Declaration in CARM, with duties and taxes paid through CARM. Release is not the end of the file: the accounting declaration, and any correction to it, is where classification, origin, and valuation errors are fixed, and the CBSA can verify and adjust an import after release.
A licensed customs broker can prepare the release and accounting documents, pay duties, present documents, and respond to CBSA questions on your behalf — and for a first European shipment, with an origin claim and a possible permit question in the same file, a broker's landed-cost estimate before you order is usually cheaper than a reassessment after. What a broker cannot do is take over your responsibility: the importer remains responsible for the accounting documentation, the payment of duties and taxes, and subsequent corrections, even when a broker files them. Settle the importer of record in the purchase agreement before the supplier ships, confirm which Incoterm-equivalent delivery terms you have actually agreed, and get the landed-cost estimate in writing, separating product cost, freight, duty, and tax, for your exact goods and origin. Do not copy a duty rate from another product, another country, or a blog post: a rate from a neighbouring classification is the most common way a first import comes in over budget.
Goods you bring back in your possession after a trip to Europe follow the personal exemptions, which turn on the length of your absence. Less than 24 hours away, there is no personal exemption: duty and tax apply to everything you bring back. More than 24 hours away, you can claim goods worth up to CAN$200, tobacco and alcoholic beverages cannot be included, the goods must be in your possession and reported at entry, and the $200 line is a cliff — if the total exceeds $200, you cannot claim the exemption at all and duty and tax apply to the entire amount. More than 48 hours away, the exemption is up to CAN$800, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products may be included within their prescribed limits, and duty and tax apply only to the amount over $800. More than 7 days away, the $800 exemption still applies, but goods other than alcohol and tobacco may arrive separately by courier or post, provided all of the goods are reported to the CBSA when you arrive; alcohol and tobacco must be in your possession at entry.
Exemptions cannot be combined with another person's or transferred, and two absence periods cannot be stacked into one larger exemption. Children are entitled to their own exemption for goods for the child's use, declared by a parent or guardian. Goods you mail home while travelling are declared on Form E24, the Personal Exemption Customs Declaration, and count against the same limits — keep a copy of the form, or you may have to pay duty and tax on goods that would otherwise have been exempt. Keep receipts for everything: the officer works from what you declare and what you can show, and undeclared goods are the fastest route to seizure and penalties. Note the interaction with Step 4: a traveller's personal exemption is a separate relief from CETA preference. Within your exemption, no duty question arises at all; over it, the duty rate on the excess follows the same classification and origin rules, and a CETA claim on the excess still needs the origin position behind it.
Value thresholds waive charges; they do not waive admissibility. Before ordering food, plants, animals or animal products, health products or prescription drugs, firearms or weapons, or cultural property from Europe, check the product-specific rules for those goods and whether another department requires a permit, certificate, or inspection before they move. The CBSA's mail page states the point plainly for postal items: mail requiring documentation, permits, licences, or inspection for other departments will not be released until those requirements are fulfilled. The same holds for courier and freight shipments, and for goods carried in luggage. A zero duty rate under CETA, a $20 parcel, and a traveller exemption all leave the permit question untouched. For a commercial shipment, this check belongs in Step 5 before the order is placed; for a personal order, it belongs before payment, because a held parcel at a CBSA facility is a storage and delay problem you cannot solve from the seller's returns page.
The recurring ones: applying the US/Mexico $40/$150 courier bands to a European parcel; assuming "shipped from the EU" means "originating in the EU"; claiming CETA preference without the exporter's origin declaration in hand; splitting one order into smaller parcels to stay under $20; treating a business shipment labelled "gift" as a gift; ordering restricted goods on the strength of a zero duty rate without checking the permit; and, for businesses, treating release of the goods as the end of the file and never checking the accounting declaration in CARM. Each is avoidable by naming the route, checking the value in Canadian dollars, separating duty from tax, and getting the origin declaration before the goods move.
This guide carries no duty rate for any product, because duty follows the 10-digit classification and the origin position for the exact goods — the Customs Tariff lookup for your classification is the only rate to use. It carries no HST percentage, because the rate depends on the province of delivery and the figure on any single CBSA page should not be carried as a national rate. It carries no courier or postal fee figures, because carrier charges are set by the carrier and change without notice; it states only that they exist and must be checked before ordering. It carries no statement about what the Canada-EU summit on October 30, 2026, will deliver, because none had been published when it was written — recheck the Sources pages after that date. And it gives no advice on whether any particular shipment is commercially worth making, and no tax advice: for unusual valuation, related-party pricing, or a shipment large enough that a wrong classification would be expensive, a customs broker's landed-cost estimate is cheaper than a reassessment.
| By mail, CAN$20 or less | No duty, no tax |
|---|---|
| By mail, over CAN$20 | Duty and tax on the full value, plus a Canada Post handling fee |
| By courier from outside the US and Mexico, CAN$20 or less | No duty, no tax |
| By courier from outside the US and Mexico, over CAN$20 | Duty and tax on the full value, plus the courier's own brokerage fee |
| Gift by mail from a friend or relative, CAN$60 or less | No duty, no tax |
| Gift by mail, over CAN$60 | Duty and tax on the amount over CAN$60 only |
| Carried back after more than 24 hours away | Up to CAN$200 duty- and tax-free; over CAN$200 loses the whole exemption |
| Carried back after more than 48 hours away | Up to CAN$800 duty- and tax-free; duty and tax only on the excess |
No. CETA can take the duty to zero on originating goods, and duty is only one of the charges. Most imported goods are also subject to GST — or HST in a participating province — and PST where it applies, calculated on top of any duty. Carrier charges sit outside both: Canada Post charges a handling fee on mail items where duty or tax is assessed, and a private courier charges its own brokerage fee for clearing the parcel. A parcel can therefore be duty-free under CETA and still arrive with tax plus a carrier fee to pay. Work out the landed cost as product price plus freight plus duty (often zero under CETA, if the origin claim holds) plus tax plus the carrier fee, for your exact goods, before you commit to a selling price or a personal purchase you cannot return cheaply.
No — not on that basis. Origin is where the goods were manufactured, produced, or grown, under the product-specific rule for their classification, not the country they were shipped from. A Chinese-made item warehoused in Germany and shipped to Canada does not become EU-originating by passing through Germany, and claiming CETA preference on it would be an incorrect origin claim. The check to run before ordering is the product-specific rule of origin for the goods' Harmonized System classification, in Annex 5 of the CETA Protocol on rules of origin — your seller or a customs broker can confirm whether the goods meet it. If the goods do not meet the rule, the most-favoured-nation duty rate applies, whatever the shipping label says. Keep the distinction in the order file: ship-from country on the tracking page, origin country on the invoice and origin declaration, and the two will not always match.
Do not claim it. To claim preferential tariff treatment under CETA, the importer must have in its possession the origin declaration completed by the exporter in the EU country of export, and the CBSA's implementation notice for CETA says so directly. Without that declaration, the goods are assessed at the ordinary duty rate for their classification, even if they would have qualified. The practical fix is before the order, not at the border: ask the seller, in writing, to put the origin declaration on the commercial invoice, using the Annex 2 wording, and to confirm the goods meet the CETA rules of origin. If the seller cannot or will not do that, price the order at the non-preferential duty rate and decide whether it is still worth buying. A declaration obtained after the fact may support a correction, but a claim made without one in hand is the error the verification process is built to catch.
No. The $40 tax-free and $150 duty-free courier bands apply only to courier shipments from the United States and Mexico, under CUSMA. A courier parcel from Europe follows the same $20 line as mail: CAN$20 or less in value for duty means no duty and no tax; over CAN$20 means duty and tax apply on the full value. The $20 line also has exclusions — tobacco, alcoholic beverages, cannabis and vaping products, and certain publications do not qualify — and the gift rule is separate: a genuine gift from a friend or relative, sent by mail with a card or notice identifying it as a gift and worth CAN$60 or less, enters duty- and tax-free, with duty and tax on the amount over $60 when it is worth more. The two exemptions cannot be combined on the same goods. If a seller's checkout promises a $150 duty-free allowance on a European shipment, it is applying the wrong agreement's numbers.
It depends on how long you were away, and the goods must be for your personal or household use and declared on arrival. Under 24 hours away, there is no personal exemption at all. More than 24 hours away, you can claim goods worth up to CAN$200, but tobacco and alcoholic beverages cannot be included, the goods must be in your possession, and the $200 line is a cliff: if the total exceeds $200, you lose the exemption entirely and duty and tax apply to the whole amount. More than 48 hours away, the exemption is up to CAN$800, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products may be included within their prescribed limits, and duty and tax apply only to the amount over $800. After more than 7 days away, the $800 exemption still applies, but goods other than alcohol and tobacco may follow you by courier or post, provided everything is reported when you arrive. You cannot combine exemptions with another person or stack two absence periods into one larger exemption, and children have their own exemption for goods for the child's use. Goods mailed home while you travel are declared on Form E24 and count against these same limits.
Start with the identifiers, before the order. A commercial importer needs a nine-digit business number from the Canada Revenue Agency and an import-export (RM) program account, and registration and accounting run through the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management system, CARM. Then, for the exact goods: get the 10-digit tariff classification from the Customs Tariff, determine the value for duty, confirm whether any other government department requires a permit or certificate for those goods, and get a landed-cost estimate that separates product cost, freight, duty at the CETA rate (only with the origin declaration in hand), and GST or HST. Release of the goods is not the end of the file: the import is then accounted for with a Commercial Accounting Declaration in CARM, and duties and taxes are paid through CARM. You may use a licensed customs broker, and for a first shipment that is usually the cheaper option — but the importer remains responsible for the accounting documents, the payment, and any later correction to classification, origin, or valuation, even when a broker files them. Keep every record for six years.