Shein, Temu and Overseas Clothing Orders in Canada: Duty, Tax, Quality and Returns

A low clothing price on an overseas site is the price before the border, the handling fee and the return you may not be able to afford. Shein and Temu are the names people search. The rules are not special to those names. They are the low-value shipment rules for goods that are not riding the higher courier bands from the United States or Mexico, plus the ordinary question of whether the garment is marked as a good of the United States. This page does not say how either platform collects tax at checkout. Check the order page, and check with the CBSA Border Information Service at 1-800-461-9999 or your carrier. The US clothing guide is the surtax page. Household goods that are not clothes are on the household counter-tariffs guide.

The $20 threshold for non-US/Mexico shipments

Value for duty is the figure the threshold uses. It is not always the number on a sale page in another currency. CBSA’s low-value shipment page says a shipment imported by mail is duty- and tax-free at $20 and under from any country, and that above $20 duties and taxes apply from any country, including the United States and Mexico. A courier shipment from any country other than the United States and Mexico is duty- and tax-free up to $20 and owes duties and taxes above $20. Memorandum D8-2-16, paragraph 9, says that where the value exceeds the threshold, customs duties apply to the entire value, not only the slice above it. Paragraph 13 repeats the $20 remission for countries other than the United States and Mexico.

The higher courier bands are the comparison, not the default for an overseas warehouse. Courier from the United States or Mexico: up to $40 duty- and tax-free, above $40 to $150 duty-free but taxes apply, above $150 duties and taxes apply. Goods do not need to originate in a CUSMA country to use those bands. They must be shipped from the United States or Mexico after they entered that country’s commerce. Goods only transshipped through the United States stay at $20. Paragraph 8 says you cannot split one order into several parcels to duck the threshold. Alcohol, cannabis, vaping products, tobacco and some publications are outside the remission. The $40 and $150 bands are not a surtax exemption. Customs Notice 26-23, paragraph 9, says the surtax applies to US-origin goods including shipments under the de minimis thresholds.

How platforms collect GST/HST at checkout

A line on a checkout can say tax, GST or “import fee.” That line is the platform’s sentence. It is not, by itself, CBSA’s assessment, and this page does not state how Shein, Temu or any other platform calculates it. Open the order page and read the lines before you pay. Then compare them with the threshold above. A prepaid tax line that does not mention duty, surtax or a handling fee has not answered those questions.

GST in CBSA’s own surtax examples is 5 percent of the value for tax. Provincial sales tax can also apply. Canada Post’s customs page says CBSA collects PST or HST according to the province of residence on most taxable mail imports valued at over CAN$20. The chart below uses 5 percent GST only, and it says so. Paragraph 17 of Customs Notice 26-23 says GST is calculated on a value for tax that includes the surtax even when customs duty is remitted, and that GST is not payable on a non-taxable importation even if surtax applies. An overseas-made order under $20 by mail is in the remission: no ordinary duty and no ordinary tax. It is not a surtax case unless the goods are marked as US goods. How a courier collects the surtax on a small personal order, and whether a brokerage fee is added, is check with CBSA or your carrier. Do not treat a forum’s fee as a rate.

Sizing, quality and return reality

The return is the part the low price hides. You need a return address you can actually use, a statement of who pays the postage, and a fibre label you can read before the parcel exists. The Competition Bureau’s “Labelling textile requirements in a nutshell” page says the dealer, meaning the manufacturer, importer or retailer responsible, has to put a label on a consumer textile article. A fibre at 5 percent or more of the mass is named with its percentage, in English and French. The dealer is named with a postal address or a CA identification number. Dealer identity and country of origin, when required, do not have to be bilingual. A permanent label has to stay legible through 10 cleanings on items such as pants and shirts. Hosiery, gloves, sleepwear and underwear may use a non-permanent tag. A listing that says “soft fabric” and never names a fibre is not that label. Quebec has additional language rules. The Bureau points those to the Office québécois de la langue française.

Size charts on these sites are not a Canadian standard. Measure a garment that fits and compare those centimetres with the chart. If the chart is missing, skip the order. The shipping and return-fee guide is the domestic version of the same arithmetic. An overseas return can cost more than a domestic $3.99 warehouse fee, and the seller’s page is the only place that number lives. The return-policy guide does not bind a foreign seller. Ontario’s lack of a general return right is about businesses under that Act. A foreign checkout still needs its own return sentence before you pay.

Product safety recalls and flagged items

Search the product and the seller on recalls-rappels.canada.ca before you pay. The public list, checked 29 Sep 2026, is the Government of Canada’s recall and advisory search. A recall can be a flammability failure, a drawstring, a chemical, or a small part. This guide gives no list of flagged garments. If a result matches what you are about to buy, do not buy it. The make-clothes-last guide is what you do after a garment you trust arrives. It is not a reason to skip the search.

When overseas really is cheaper

Compare the landed stack with a Canadian price for the same fibre and a size you can return locally. On a non-US-origin shirt over $20 by courier, most-favoured-nation duty may apply to the whole value if the line carries a duty rate. Chapter 61, checked 29 Sep 2026, prints 18 percent most-favoured-nation on 6109.10.00, 6110.20.00 and 6110.30.00, and UST Free on those lines. The US clothing guide’s table prints 17 percent on 6211.32. Use 18 percent only when you are treating the parcel as one of those lines. If you are not sure of the line, the duty is “depends on classification,” and the GST base moves with it. Under $20 by mail, ordinary duty and tax are remitted, subject to the exceptions, and there is still no surtax unless the goods are US-origin.

Example with made-up inputs. One order is $18 by mail. It is under $20, so this example shows no duty and no GST, and it assumes the goods are not alcohol, tobacco or another exception, and are not marked as US goods. The other order is $60 by courier from a country other than the United States or Mexico, treated as tariff item 6109.10.00, cotton knitted T-shirts, most-favoured-nation 18 percent. Duty is $10.80. Value for tax is $70.80. GST at 5 percent is $3.54. Surtax is $0 because the example is not US-origin. Classification is assumed so the arithmetic can use a published rate. Check with CBSA before you treat a real parcel as 6109.10.00. Canada Post’s $9.95 handling fee applies when mail owes duty or tax. The $18 mail example does not owe duty or tax, so that fee is not part of it. The $60 example is a courier order, not a mail item, so the Canada Post fee is not part of it either. The chart draws no bar for a handling fee and states no amount for one. Brokerage on the courier is check with the carrier. The brokerage guide separates government charges from carrier charges.