Landed cost — Canada
Importing Custom Apparel Into Canada: Duty and Landed Cost
Canada is the market most often modelled wrongly, because the obvious assumption is wrong. Pakistan is a beneficiary of Canada’s General Preferential Tariff — but apparel is one of the things that programme deliberately leaves out.
Canada’s GPT excludes most apparel, so Pakistani garments pay the MFN rate — 18% on cotton knitwear — plus 5% GST on the duty-paid value.
The short version
- Pakistan is a GPT beneficiary, but GPT preferences exclude most apparel and textile products.
- So apparel pays the MFN rate. On cotton jerseys and pullovers (6110.20.00) and cotton T-shirts (6109.10.00) that rate is 18%.
- GPT is not listed as an applicable treatment on those tariff lines at all.
- GST of 5% is payable on the duty-paid value of the shipment.
- In participating provinces HST applies instead, at a higher combined rate.
- From 1 January 2025 cutting and sewing in a developing country confers origin on the finished garment, regardless of where the yarn and fabric came from.
Checked against the official sources linked below on 4 September 2026. Duty and tax law changes — we re-check before every quote rather than publishing a number and letting it go stale. Verify your own commodity code before you commit to a price: CBSA Customs Tariff — find your tariff item
Why the preference you would expect does not apply
Canada’s General Preferential Tariff covers over 80% of tariff lines for goods — but explicitly not most apparel and textile products, footwear, certain agricultural goods or certain steel products. Pakistan is a GPT beneficiary country; that simply does not help for garments.
You can see it on the tariff line itself. For cotton jerseys and pullovers (6110.20.00) and cotton T-shirts (6109.10.00), the Customs Tariff lists a long set of preferential treatments — LDCT, CUSMA, and the various free-trade partners — and GPT is not among them.
The practical consequence: budget Canadian orders at the MFN rate from the start. This is the one market of the four where assuming a developing-country preference will put your margin out by double digits.
Source: Department of Finance Canada — unilateral tariff preference programsCBSA Customs Tariff 2025 — Chapter 61
The MFN rate, and the tax on top
For the two lines most of our knitwear falls under — 6110.20.00 and 6109.10.00 — the MFN rate is 18%. Woven garments sit in Chapter 62 and have their own rates, so check your own code rather than carrying 18% across everything.
GST of 5% is then payable on the duty-paid value of the shipment: the value of the goods plus the duty, not the value alone. In provinces that participate in the harmonised system, HST applies instead at a higher combined rate.
As in the UK and EU, a GST/HST-registered business recovers the tax through input tax credits, so the tax is cash flow. The 18% duty is not — that one is a permanent part of your unit cost, and it is the number to build your Canadian retail price around.
Source: CBSA — determining duties and taxes on commercial goodsCanada Revenue Agency — GST/HST on imports and exports
One rule that changed in your favour
From 1 January 2025 the rules of origin for apparel were liberalised and harmonised across Canada’s preference programmes, so that cutting and sewing in a developing or least-developed country confers origin on the finished garment regardless of where the yarn and fabric came from.
That matters for how we work: we cut and sew on our own floor, and the fabric we source for you does not have to come from Pakistan for the garment to be Pakistani in origin.
Source: Department of Finance Canada — tariff preference programs
Why we quote DDP
On this route the 18% duty is permanent cost and the 5% GST is not, so the two belong on separate lines in your model. A quote that merges them, or omits the duty because it assumed a developing-country preference, will be wrong by roughly a fifth of your goods value.
That is what DDP means: freight, duty, tax and carrier fees paid before the parcel lands, each itemised on your quote. Ask every supplier you compare to itemise the same three lines — if one will not, that is your answer about which number is real.
Questions we get asked about Canada
- Does Canada’s General Preferential Tariff cover clothing from Pakistan?
- No. GPT preferences cover over 80% of tariff lines but exclude most apparel and textile products. Pakistan is a GPT beneficiary country, but garments do not qualify, so they pay the MFN rate.
- How much is Canadian duty on custom hoodies and T-shirts?
- On cotton jerseys and pullovers (6110.20.00) and cotton T-shirts (6109.10.00) the MFN rate is 18%. Woven garments fall in Chapter 62 with their own rates, so check your own commodity code.
- Is GST charged on the goods or on the goods plus duty?
- On the duty-paid value — the value of the goods plus the duty. GST is 5%; in participating provinces HST applies instead at a higher combined rate.
- Does the fabric have to be made in Pakistan?
- No. Since 1 January 2025 cutting and sewing in a developing country confers origin on the finished garment regardless of where the yarn and fabric originated.
The other markets we ship to
Duty is set by the destination, so the same garment lands at a different cost in each of these. The overview of how the four compare is in what duty actually costs.