Aritzia’s Brian Hill Urges Canada to Scrap De Minimis Duty Exemptions as U.S. Abolishes Policy

What is the De Minimis Exemption? Under Canada’s system, imports shipped to consumers from the U.S. or Mexico with a declared value of $150 or less are not subject to Canadian duties, while goods with a value of $40 or less are free of taxes, according to trade law expert Daniel Kiselbach of Miller Thomson.

In contrast, after an executive order signed by the U.S. President, the United States no longer provides duty-exemption for any commercial shipments from Canada or Mexico and now requires full compliance—including duties and taxes—even for the lowest-value parcels. “We Should Be at Zero”—Calls for Policy Reversal “If the U.S.

is at zero, we should be at zero,” Hill insisted to the crowd, criticizing the policy that lets foreign e-commerce shipments into Canada without paying comparable tariffs faced by homegrown companies.

With a measured but pointed tone, he asked, “Why is it advantageous for foreign retail, foreign product companies, foreign retailers, or whatever, to be able to ship into Canada duty-free, and we are having to pay duty on it?“ Hill said that Aritzia previously shipped 70 percent of its online U.S…