Dear Trade Partners,

The LCBO’s annual FTA Program operations are once again launching a new campaign for the intake and processing of 2023 FTA Origin Declaration Forms. The Program aims to aide Trade Partners in reducing the cost of importation and the associated downstream pricing impact of products that may qualify for duty-reduction tariff treatment. By submitting compliant Origin Declaration forms to the LCBO, Trade Partners gain access to preferential tariff treatment on their qualifying products and minimize exposure to import tariffs on products that may otherwise carry additional costs upon importation from associated tariffs.

Each January 1st, the LCBO must execute a re-alignment of all products in the LCBO product database which rolls back any applied preferential tariff rates to their default non-preferential “MFN” rates, inclusive of all products certified in the previous “applicability year”. These MFN rates will impact importation costs and thus the pricing of any product that isn’t certified. In order to alleviate the risk and impact of pricing changes that may potentially be exposed to this realignment, the LCBO requires Suppliers to certify all eligible products imported by the LCBO using a formal, blanket Certification of Origin using our prescribed Declaration Forms. These Declarations serve as the foundation for the LCBO’s ability to substantiate the application of duty-reductions on import declarations sent to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA); this mechanism is known as applying preferential tariff rates for certified products

This year, we are launching earlier than last, with the launch occurring at the beginning of October.

All Suppliers seeking the application of preferential tariff rates to their 2022 importations must provide their valid and compliant Certifications of Origin on the prescribed template Declaration Form by November 28th, 2022 in order to afford Declaration submissions the best possible position for preferential tariff rate application at the beginning of January 2023 for conforming submissions which have at least 1 valid LCBO Product Number.

The updated 2023 template forms and key information will continue to be accessible directly from the LCBO’s FTA Hub. Please visit FTA Template Forms Library to retrieve the 2023 LCBO template Declaration forms.

Origin Declaration forms must be completed in the prescribed format, on the prescribed template form, and submitted in original PDF format by email to origin.certificates@lcbo.com.

Sincerest Regards,

The LCBO Customs Team

100 Queens Quay E., Toronto, ON M5E 0C7 origin.certificates@lcbo.com

visit the FTA Hub