What customs category does mead fall into when entering Canada?

Question

When returning to Canada from abroad, a Canadian resident or citizen is allowed to import alcoholic beverages according to the following rule:

Alcoholic beverages are products that exceed 0.5% alcohol by volume.

You are allowed to import only one of the following amounts of alcohol and alcoholic beverages free of duty and taxes as part of your personal exemption:

Product	Metric	Imperial	*Estimates
Wine	Up to 1.5 litres	Up to 53 fluid ounces	Two 750-ml bottles of wine
Alcoholic beverages	Up to 1.14 litres	Up to 40 fluid ounces	One large standard bottle of liquor
Beer or ale	Up to 8.5 litres	Up to 287 fluid ounces	Approximately 24, 355-ml cans or bottles of beer or ale

Source

This question comes in two parts:

1. Into which category does mead fall?
2. If the personal exemption limit is exceeded, what excise rate applies? Is it the one from the Customs Tariff Document?

Source (page 345)

Assume the following:

• The traveller is a Canadian citizen.
• The mead was purchased in a CETA country and documentation is available to prove it.
• The mead is no stronger than a typical wine (11-12% ABV).
• The intent is for personal use and gifts, rather than for sale.

Answer 1

The legal definition for wine under the Customs Act, which refers to the definition under the Excise Act, 2001, is:

wine means

• (a) a beverage, containing more than 0.5% absolute ethyl alcohol by volume, that is produced without distillation, other than distillation to reduce the absolute ethyl alcohol content, by the alcoholic fermentation of

  • (i) an agricultural product other than grain,

    • (ii) a plant or plant product, other than grain, that is not an agricultural product, or

    • (iii) a product wholly or partially derived from an agricultural product or plant or plant product other than grain;

• (b) sake; and

• (c) a beverage described by paragraph (a) or (b) that is fortified not in excess of 22.9% absolute ethyl alcohol by volume.

which should cover most meads.

On the same topic, beer is defined by the Excised Act as

beer or malt liquor means any product (other than wine, as defined in section 2 of the Excise Act, 2001) that is

• (a) a fermented liquor that is brewed in whole or in part from malt, grain or any saccharine matter without any process of distillation and that has an alcoholic strength not in excess of 11.9% absolute ethyl alcohol by volume, or
• (b) beer concentrate (NB: defined separately);

All beverages exceeding 0.5% alcohol content are alcoholic beverages, including beer and wine.

You are allowed one and only one of the personal exemption amounts available for alcohol. If you want to bring back a mix of beer and wine, or you are bringing back any hard liquor/spirits, only the 1.14-litre exemption applies.

If the personal exemption limit is exceeded, what excise rate applies? Is it the one from the Customs Tariff Document?

Federal custom duties according to the Tariff, federal excise levies, GST as well as any provincial PST, HST, other taxes and excise levies and restrictions all apply. You may need to ask your provincial liquor control department for clarifications.

Answer 2

Mead is a fermented beverage, exactly like wine except that it contains honey instead of grapes or other sugary fruits. It uses the same types of yeast that is used in wine and alcohol percent cannot exceed 18% (wine yeast cannot function in more than 18% alcohol).

So the logical option would be wine. It cannot be beer or ale (alcohol is ~5%) and it cannot be alcoholic beverage (distilled with high alcohol content).