CanLex / canlex /tariff_schedule.py
Beemer
Ingest Customs Tariff Schedule Chapters 98 and 99
8c9bc18
"""Ingest Chapters 98 and 99 of the Customs Tariff Schedule.
The Customs Tariff's Schedule is the Harmonized System classification of goods
-- chapters 1-97 categorise every imported good for duty purposes. Those 97
chapters are huge and outside CanLex's scope, but **chapters 98 and 99 are
different**: they carry Canada's "special classification" provisions, which
matter for almost every CBSA border interaction:
- Chapter 98 (non-commercial): traveller exemptions, settler's effects,
Canadian goods returned, ancestral household effects, conveyances
temporarily imported by a resident, etc.
- Chapter 99 (commercial): temporary importations, end-use programs,
government imports, reduced-rate goods for specific industries.
Source: the CBSA's HTML edition of the current Customs Tariff. The Justice
Laws XML for the Act (C-54.011) does NOT include the Schedule.
Chunking is one chunk per 4-digit HEADING (98.01, 98.02, ...) plus one chunk
per chapter for its Notes and Subheading Notes -- a heading is the natural
unit of legal classification (the eight- and ten-digit items below it are the
same rule with finer rate granularity).
py -m canlex.tariff_schedule
"""
import json
import re
import time
import urllib.request
from collections import defaultdict
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from .config import PROCESSED_DIR, RAW_DIR
RAW = RAW_DIR / "tariff_schedule"
OUT = PROCESSED_DIR / "tariff_schedule.json"
_UA = ("Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 "
"(KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36")
# The 2026 edition is the current Customs Tariff at the time of writing. To
# refresh: bump the year in the URL and `edition` once CBSA publishes the next.
SOURCES = {
"ch98": {
"code": "ch98",
"chapter": "98",
"title": "Special classification provisions — non-commercial",
"url": ("https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/"
"2026/html/00/ch98-eng.html"),
"edition": "2026",
},
"ch99": {
"code": "ch99",
"chapter": "99",
"title": "Special classification provisions — commercial",
"url": ("https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/"
"2026/html/00/ch99-eng.html"),
"edition": "2026",
},
}
def _norm(text):
return re.sub(r"\s+", " ", (text or "").replace("\xa0", " ")).strip()
def _fetch(url, dest):
if dest.exists():
return dest.read_bytes()
dest.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers={"User-Agent": _UA})
with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=60) as resp:
dest.write_bytes(resp.read())
time.sleep(0.5)
return dest.read_bytes()
def _heading_of(item):
"""Map a tariff-item code to its 4-digit heading. The schedule uses three
levels:
- '98.01' (4 digits) -- heading
- '9801.10' (6 digits) -- subheading
- '9801.10.10' (8 digits) -- tariff item
All three roll up to heading '98.01'."""
digits = re.sub(r"\D", "", item)
if len(digits) < 4:
return None
return f"{digits[:2]}.{digits[2:4]}"
def _collect_notes(main):
"""Return the chapter's Notes + Subheading Notes as a single text block."""
out = []
for label in ("Notes", "Subheading Notes"):
h2 = main.find(
"h2",
string=lambda s, lbl=label: s and lbl in s and (
lbl != "Notes" or "Subheading" not in s))
if not h2:
continue
parts = []
sib = h2.find_next_sibling()
while sib and sib.name != "h2":
t = _norm(sib.get_text(" ", strip=True))
if t:
parts.append(t)
sib = sib.find_next_sibling()
if parts:
out.append(f"{label}:\n" + "\n".join(parts))
return "\n\n".join(out)
def parse_chapter(html, src):
"""Parse one Customs Tariff Schedule chapter into chunks."""
soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser")
main = soup.find("main")
if main is None:
return []
for sup in main.find_all("sup"):
sup.decompose()
chunks = []
chapter = src["chapter"]
citation_root = f"Customs Tariff, Sched., Ch. {chapter}"
# Chapter Notes + Subheading Notes -- one chunk per chapter.
notes_body = _collect_notes(main)
if notes_body:
chunks.append({
"id": f"tariff-sched-ch{chapter}-notes",
"doc_type": "legislation",
"act_code": "C-54.011",
"act_short": "Customs Tariff",
"act_name": "Customs Tariff",
"section": f"Sch-Ch{chapter}-Notes",
"marginal_note": (f"Chapter {chapter} Notes — "
f"{src['title']}"),
"part": f"Schedule, Chapter {chapter}",
"division": "",
"heading": src["title"],
"text": notes_body,
"history": "",
"last_amended": "",
"current_to": src["edition"],
"citation": f"{citation_root}, Notes",
"source_url": src["url"],
})
# Walk every row in the schedule table, grouping by 4-digit heading.
table = main.find("table")
if table is None:
return chunks
rows_by_heading = defaultdict(list) # heading -> list of (item, ss, desc, unit, mfn, pref)
heading_desc = {} # heading -> the 4-digit row's description
for tr in table.find_all("tr"):
cells = tr.find_all(["td", "th"], recursive=False)
if not cells:
continue
first = _norm(cells[0].get_text(" ", strip=True))
if not first or first == "Tariff Item":
continue # header row or blank
heading = _heading_of(first)
if heading is None:
continue
def col(i):
return _norm(cells[i].get_text(" ", strip=True)) if i < len(cells) else ""
ss, desc, unit, mfn, pref = col(1), col(2), col(3), col(4), col(5)
# A 4-digit row carries only the heading number and description -- store
# it once. Otherwise it's a subheading/item row; remember its rate cells.
digits = re.sub(r"\D", "", first)
if len(digits) == 4 and desc and heading not in heading_desc:
heading_desc[heading] = desc
rows_by_heading[heading].append((first, ss, desc, unit, mfn, pref))
for heading in sorted(rows_by_heading):
desc = heading_desc.get(heading, "")
rows = rows_by_heading[heading]
if not desc:
# No bare 4-digit row -- fall back to the first row's description.
desc = next((r[2] for r in rows if r[2]), "")
# Format the chunk: heading description first, then the items as a
# readable list. Suppress description on item/subheading rows that just
# repeat the heading desc verbatim (very common in this Schedule).
lines = []
for item, ss, item_desc, unit, mfn, pref in rows:
d = re.sub(r"\D", "", item)
if len(d) == 4:
continue # the heading row, already in desc
label = f" {item}"
if ss:
label += f" (SS {ss})"
extras = []
if item_desc and item_desc != desc:
extras.append(item_desc)
rate = []
if mfn:
rate.append(f"MFN {mfn}")
if pref:
rate.append(f"Pref: {pref}")
if unit and unit != "-":
rate.append(f"Unit {unit}")
if rate:
extras.append(" | ".join(rate))
tail = " — " + "; ".join(extras) if extras else ""
lines.append(label + tail)
body = f"Heading {heading}{desc}"
if lines:
body += "\n\nTariff items:\n" + "\n".join(lines)
chunks.append({
"id": f"tariff-sched-{heading.replace('.', '-')}",
"doc_type": "legislation",
"act_code": "C-54.011",
"act_short": "Customs Tariff",
"act_name": "Customs Tariff",
"section": f"Sch-{heading}",
"marginal_note": desc[:200],
"part": f"Schedule, Chapter {chapter}",
"division": "",
"heading": src["title"],
"text": body,
"history": "",
"last_amended": "",
"current_to": src["edition"],
"citation": f"Customs Tariff, Sched., heading {heading}",
"source_url": src["url"],
})
return chunks
def build():
all_chunks = []
for src in SOURCES.values():
print(f"Ingesting Customs Tariff Schedule {src['code']} ...")
try:
html = _fetch(src["url"], RAW / f"{src['code']}.html")
chunks = parse_chapter(html, src)
except Exception as exc:
print(f" !! {src['code']}: {type(exc).__name__}: {exc}")
continue
all_chunks.extend(chunks)
print(f" {len(chunks)} chunks")
PROCESSED_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
OUT.write_text(json.dumps(all_chunks, ensure_ascii=False, indent=1),
encoding="utf-8")
print(f"\n{len(all_chunks)} tariff-schedule chunks from {len(SOURCES)} "
f"chapter(s) -> {OUT}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
build()