Issue 024  ·  Sunday, September 20, 2026

Claiming the UK’s new tariff code can cost 15% on a duty-free line

Code 35 arrived on September 1 with the CPTPP. On two footwear lines it is dearer than the MFN rate anyone gets without an agreement at all.

A preference that costs more than no preference

If you import from the United Kingdom, there is a new tariff treatment on your broker’s screen this month: CPUKT, Code 35, live since September 1 when the CPTPP entered into force for the UK (Canada Border Services Agency [CBSA], 2026d, paras. 2–3). It sits beside the UKT treatment you have been claiming since 2021.

It is not an upgrade, and claiming it out of habit is a way to pay duty you do not owe. Two footwear lines make the point on their own, because on each the new preferential rate is higher than the MFN rate any importer gets with no agreement whatsoever — and a third line, a truck, shows it is not confined to footwear:

• 6401.92.92, waterproof footwear — MFN Free, UKT Free, CPUKT 15%
• 6401.99.12, waterproof footwear — MFN Free, UKT Free, CPUKT 7.5% (CBSA, 2026b)
• 8704.21.10, goods vehicles — MFN Free, UKT Free, CPUKT 1.1% (CBSA, 2026c)

On a C$200,000 shipment of 6401.92.92, Code 35 is C$30,000 of duty on goods that carry none at the general rate. Nothing on the accounting document flags it. The entry is accepted, the duty is owed, and the only thing that went wrong is that somebody used the newer code because it was newer.

If Code 35 already went on an entry, the duty is not stuck there. The tariff treatment on that accounting document can be changed afterwards — to UKT where the goods originate under the older agreement, or to MFN on the two footwear lines above, where the general rate is already Free. That is a refund under section 74 of the Customs Act, filed as an adjustment to the CAD within four years of the date the goods were accounted for, and a claim moving to another preferential treatment carries the origin document for the treatment now being claimed (CBSA, 2018, paras. 3, 28–29). It is voluntary (CBSA, 2018, para. 2). If nobody files it, CBSA keeps the 15%.

Footwear: thirteen lines where UKT is Free and CPUKT is not

Chapter 64 is where this bites hardest, and it is a chapter small enough to read end to end — 63 distinct tariff items. On 13 of them the UKT column is Free and the CPUKT column is not. On the other 50 the two are identical. On none of the 63 is CPUKT the cheaper claim (CBSA, 2026b).

The gaps are not rounding. Tariff item 6401.10.19 is MFN 20%, UKT Free, CPUKT 15%. Items 6401.10.20, 6401.92.91, 6401.99.19 and 6401.99.20 all run the same 20 / Free / 15. 6402.91.10 is 17.5% / Free / 13%. 6404.19.90 is 18% / Free / 13.5%. The leather lines are gentler but still real — 6403.51.10, 6403.59.91, 6403.91.00 and 6403.99.91 are each 18% / Free / 3% (CBSA, 2026b).

Take 6401.10.19 at a C$200,000 value for duty. MFN is C$40,000. UKT is nil. CPUKT is C$30,000. That is the spread on a single shipment between two treatments the same importer is entitled to claim, and the cheaper one is the older one.

The rule: Code 35 is a comparison, not a default

The reason the new column loses is structural rather than accidental. CPUKT is not a schedule Canada negotiated with the United Kingdom; it is the CPTPP schedule extended to a new member part-way through its own staging, and it reads across as the CPTPP column almost everywhere I looked. The UKT column descends from a different agreement whose staging is further along, which is why it is already at Free on lines where CPUKT is still stepping down.

It does not read across perfectly, and the exception runs the wrong way for the UK: on 8704.23.00 the CPTPP column is Free while CPUKT is 1.1% (CBSA, 2026c). So “CPUKT equals CPTPT” is a good working assumption and not a rule either. The only safe operating position is that Code 35 is a rate to compare, never a rate to assume.

The one good reason to claim the worse column

A cheaper rate is only worth having if the goods qualify for it, and the UKT route got harder in 2024 in a way no tariff table shows.

Customs Notice 24-07, issued March 26, 2024, advised that two sets of provisions under the Canada–UK Trade Continuity Agreement would cease to apply as of April 1, 2024, three years after that agreement entered into force: the Origin Quotas, and the cumulation of origin of materials and production carried out in the European Union. From that date CBSA administers the agreement’s rules of origin “without the application of these provisions” (CBSA, 2024, paras. 3–4).

The notice describes those Origin Quotas as covering “certain goods, such as processed agricultural products, textiles, apparel and vehicles, that are subject to a different set of rules of origin,” and the cumulation provision as letting EU materials and production count as originating (CBSA, 2024, paras. 7–8).

So a UK good with substantial EU content could qualify before April 2024 and may not now — and a worse published rate you can actually claim beats a better one you cannot. That is the one good reason to file Code 35, and it is an origin question for your broker rather than a rate question for a table.

Two notes before you go

One aside worth knowing if you buy dairy: in Chapter 4, 44 of the 100 tariff items have a preferential-tariffs cell that reads, in full, “CPUKT N/A” — against MFN rates running from 163.5% to 313.5% (CBSA, 2026a). Nothing about the UK’s accession opens supply-managed dairy, and the table says so in two words.

And the limit on all of this: Chapter 64 end to end, plus the vehicle and dairy lines cited, is not ninety-nine chapters, and a single tariff item where CPUKT beats UKT would kill the rule above.

References

Canada Border Services Agency. (2018). Memorandum D6-2-3: Refund of duties. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d6/d6-2-3-eng.html

Canada Border Services Agency. (2024). Customs Notice 24-07: Expiry of specific rules of origin provisions under the Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/cn-ad/cn24-07-eng.html

Canada Border Services Agency. (2026a). Chapter 4: T2026-2—Dairy produce; birds' eggs; natural honey; edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/html/02/ch04-eng.html

Canada Border Services Agency. (2026b). Chapter 64: T2026-2—Footwear, gaiters and the like; parts of such articles. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/html/02/ch64-eng.html

Canada Border Services Agency. (2026c). Chapter 87: T2026-2—Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock, and parts and accessories thereof. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/html/02/ch87-eng.html

Canada Border Services Agency. (2026d). Customs Notice 26-22: Amendment to the departmental consolidation of the Customs Tariff – United Kingdom. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/cn-ad/cn26-22-eng.html

A note on framing: Fully Briefed synthesizes publicly available government source material and translates it into financial terms. That synthesis is machine-assisted: automated research pulls from primary government sources and produces a first draft each week. I check every figure, date and citation against the source, edit the result, and decide what ships. Errors are mine. This is education, not legal, customs, or tax advice. Nothing here determines how a specific product, shipment or filing should be treated — the published instruments govern, and your customs broker works the inputs.

Trevor Ryhorchuk, CPA, CIA, PMP

Canadian Trade Intelligence — Fully Briefed
tradeintel.fullybriefed.ca