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An awful lot of the tariff schedule makes no sense whatsoever

Oak flooring is subject to a 3.5 per cent tariff, but maple flooring is free. An umbrella is tariffed at seven per cent, but 7.5 per cent if it has a telescoping shaft. Jukeboxes that play records are free, but 5 per cent if they play CDs. Discount women’s running shoes are 18 per cent, but high-end Manolos are only 11 per cent. A staple gun is tariffed at 3.5 per cent, but that rises to 6.5 per cent if they’re sold in packs of two. Every pharmaceutical in the world can be imported free into Canada, save for a specific type of gel used in medical examinations. Almost everything made out of copper is tariff-free in Canada, except for copper coffins (9.5. per cent). Imagine if the GST worked like this: A pack of gum would be taxed at four per cent, while tic tacs would be inexplicably taxed at six per cent and jawbreakers would be tax-free. It would be comforting to assume that there is some grand plan behind the madness of the tariff schedule, but in reality it’s mostly just chaos. “There often is very little logic once you really start to look into the tariffs,” said Adam Taylor, a former federal government trade negotiator and now the principal of the consultancy firm Export Action Global.

Photo by Brook Jones/Selkirk Journal/Postmedia Network

… but there are reasons for the unreasonableness

The tariff schedule is a bit like the Criminal Code: A big, constantly amended document with a whole bunch of outdated stuff in it that nobody has thought to remove. Until 2016, the Criminal Code still contained offences related to “buggery” — and it remains an offence to pretend to be a witch. Similarly, a lot of the weird inconsistencies in the tariff schedule are leftovers from the era when the federal government saw it as a major revenue generator. Oak flooring might have higher tariffs than maple flooring because, back in the 1950s, that was a good way to close a budget gap. Some tariffs may also be leftovers from long-forgotten trade spats. If Canada’s current trade fight with the U.S. is never resolved, for instance, future generations might wonder why we placed a punitive tariff on American-made ketchup.