Canada HTS Codes 2026: What They Are and How to Find Yours

Canada does not have an HTS. The United States has the HTSUS — the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, administered by the USITC. Canada has the Customs Tariff, where the tariff item is an 8-digit number; add the 2-digit statistical suffix Statistics Canada requires and you get the 10-digit classification number that appears on a B3 — the number most importers just call "the tariff code" or "the 10-digit code." Both are built on the same international Harmonized System, so if a US supplier handed you an HTS code, the first 6 digits transfer straight into the Canadian schedule. The last 4 do not — Canada assigns its own tariff item and statistical suffix, independent of whatever the US assigned. Below is what the terminology actually maps to, and where to look up the Canadian number that governs your import.

What Canada actually has

The Canadian Customs Tariff is built in five layers, and only the first three are shared with any other country:

• Chapter — digits 1-2. There are 99 chapters, each a broad category of goods (Chapter 85, for example, covers electrical machinery and equipment).
• Heading — digits 3-4. A subdivision within the chapter.
• Subheading — digits 5-6. The international 6-digit code set by the World Customs Organization (WCO) — identical in Canada, the US, the EU, and every other country that has signed on to the Harmonized System.
• Tariff item — digits 7-8. This is where Canada takes over. The Customs Tariff assigns its own 2-digit extension, and this is usually what drives the applicable duty rate.
• Statistical suffix — digits 9-10. Required by Statistics Canada on the B3 declaration. Added to the 8-digit tariff item, it produces the 10-digit classification number; the suffix itself typically doesn't affect the duty rate, though CBSA still expects it to be correct.

Nothing after digit 6 is shared with the United States, or with anyone else. Start every lookup from the HS Code Directory, which is built on the Canadian Customs Tariff, not the US schedule.

Why the confusion is legitimate

This isn't a case of people using the wrong word out of carelessness. The first 6 digits of every tariff code in the world genuinely are identical, by treaty, under the Harmonized System that the WCO administers. A search engine sees "HTS" and "tariff code" as near-synonyms because, for 6 out of 10 digits, they are.

The divergence starts at digit 7, and it happens because every signatory country subdivides that 6-digit international subheading for its own purposes — Canada for its Customs Tariff and Statistics Canada reporting, the United States for the HTSUS and US Census Bureau reporting. Neither country's 7th-through-10th digits are visible to, or binding on, the other. If you're working from a US document, treat the number as a 6-digit starting point, not a finished Canadian classification — confirm the rest in the HS Code Directory.

A worked example

Take heading 85.17 (telephone sets, including smartphones, and other apparatus for the transmission or reception of voice, images, or data), subheading 8517.62. In Canada, that 6-digit subheading resolves to tariff item 8517.62.00 (MFN rate: Free), which the Customs Tariff then subdivides into exactly three statistical suffixes:

• .30 — modems, including facsimile modems, of a kind used with data processing machines of heading 84.71
• .40 — other modems
• .90 — other

That's how the Customs Tariff subdivides this subheading, sourced from the tariff item itself — .30, .40, and .90. The US schedule subdivides the same 6-digit subheading under its own statistical suffixes, set by the USITC for US Census reporting needs. It's a different authority working from a different list, and this project holds no US tariff data to cite it from — so if a US supplier's paperwork shows a suffix under 8517.62, treat it as belonging to that US list, not to the Canadian one above. Statistical suffixes are occasionally added or split when the Customs Tariff is amended, so before you rely on this breakdown, confirm the current set of suffixes for 8517.62.00 in the HS Code Directory.

How to find your Canadian tariff item

1. Start from the product description, not the digits. Search the HS Code Directory by what the product is — the description is what actually determines classification.
2. If you already have a 6-digit subheading (from a US document, a WCO reference, or an old classification), use it as your entry point and browse the tariff items underneath it rather than assuming digits 7-10 carry over.
3. Confirm the MFN rate and check for any preferential trade agreement rate that applies to your country of origin.
4. Run the number through the duty calculator to get the full landed cost — duty, GST/HST, and any applicable surtax — before you commit to the classification on a B3.

If two tariff items both plausibly describe your goods, that's a signal to request a CBSA advance ruling rather than guess. Either way, confirm the item's description and MFN rate in the HS Code Directory before you file.

Three mistakes when copying a US code

Assuming the statistical suffix transfers. Only the first 6 digits are internationally guaranteed. A US supplier's ".90" or any other 7th-10th digit ending is a US-specific subdivision — it does not automatically correspond to the Canadian suffix with the same digits, as the worked example above shows.

Assuming the duty rate transfers. Canada's MFN rate and the US column-1 rate are set independently by two separate governments, even when the 6-digit subheading is identical. A 0% US rate tells you nothing about the Canadian MFN rate on the same subheading — check it directly in the duty calculator.

Missing Canadian surtax exposure. Canada layers retaliatory surtaxes on top of the Customs Tariff through Orders in Council (SOR instruments) published in the Canada Gazette. These are a distinct legal instrument from the Customs Tariff, cover specific tariff items by SOR schedule, and have no US equivalent — a product can be entirely surtax-free in the US and carry a stacked 25% surtax into Canada, or vice versa. Confirm surtax exposure for your tariff item before you land the goods: run the number through the duty calculator, which surfaces every stacked surtax automatically, and verify the item itself in the HS Code Directory before you commit to it.

Start from the HS Code Directory to find your Canadian tariff item, then run it through the duty calculator for the full landed cost.