The Canada tariff: what changes for Canadian-sourced products
Update, 31 October 2026
The lists changed again on 30 October, with 7 days of notice. 100 lines went on the general list, including sweetened cocoa powder, carpets and rugs, some paints, mastics, shampoo, toilet soap, window air conditioners, chest freezers, electric hand tools, iron and steel valves and archery equipment. 22 came off, including seaweed, plastic film and bags, plywood, corrugated cartons and some packaging and refrigeration machinery. The alcohol and dairy lists did not change, and the lists now run to 744 lines (U.S. note 51 in Revision 22 of the tariff schedule, Proclamation 11076 of 23 October, CBP CSMS #70314289).
The entry date is what counts, as it was in August. The proclamation has no exception for goods in transit, and goods withdrawn from a warehouse on or after 30 October are treated the same as new entries. Lines that came off stop carrying the 50% from that date. The checker on the front page gives the date for any line that joined or left the lists after 22 August.
Update, 5 October 2026
Four things had changed by this date, and the first is a correction.
- It started on 22 August, not 19 August. The duty was suspended for three days and applies to goods entered from 12:01 a.m. eastern on 22 August 2026 (CBP CSMS #69606660, 21 August). On 20 August I wrote below that it had taken effect on the 19th, which was wrong.
- Section 232 goods are exempt on the dairy list only. From 15 September only goods on the dairy list (9903.03.13) can claim the exemption (CBP CSMS #69851916). On the alcohol and general lists a steel, aluminium or vehicle line pays the Section 232 duty and the 50% on top.
- The lists changed on 15 September. 122 lines were added, including most cheeses (on the alcohol list), paper, steel structures, aluminium plate, office and upholstered seating, two car lines and some boats, and 10 came off, including salt, cement and fishing rods. That took the lists to 666 lines (U.S. note 51 in Revision 20 of the tariff schedule).
- From 29 September, 68 lines cannot be imported at all. Packaged beer, wine, cider and spirits (28 of the 53 alcohol lines only when packaged for consumption), whey, molasses, non-alcoholic beer and motorcycles over 800cc (Proclamations 11061, 11062 and 11063; annexes for alcohol, dairy and motor vehicles). Goods imported before then and entered later still take the 50%.
The rest of this note is as I wrote it in July and August, with those points corrected where they appear.
On 23 July the US published 3 proclamations under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Together they add a 50% duty to 554 tariff lines of Canadian origin, for goods entered from 12:01 am Eastern time on 19 August 2026 (in the event it was suspended until 22 August). I've read the proclamations and their annexes so you don't have to; this note is what I'd want to know if I were importing from Canada.
Where this stands on 20 August
The duty was due to take effect at 12:01 a.m. eastern on 19 August (it was suspended until 22 August; see the update above) and the published tariff schedule had not caught up with it. I checked at source again on the morning of the 20th: the current release is 2026 Revision 16, and heading 9903.03 still runs from .01 to .11 with none of the 5 Section 338 headings in it.
That matters if you are working a rate out by hand. Look up one of these Canadian lines in the schedule today and the number you get is 50 points short, and there is nothing on the page to tell you the rest of it exists. The proclamations are the authority on whether the duty is owed and they have not changed. Whether it is being collected at entry this week is a question for whoever files your entries, and I would ask them rather than assume it either way.
The 4 facts that matter
- It is 50 percentage points on top of your current rate, in addition to whatever you pay today, and existing duties, fees and any anti-dumping measures continue to apply.
- USMCA does not help. The proclamations apply the duty whether or not the goods qualify under the trade agreement. If your Canadian products currently enter duty-free under USMCA, this is the first duty they will have carried in years.
- The scope is 3 lists: alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, cider, spirits), dairy inputs (milk powders, whey, casein), and a general list, now 591 lines, that runs from honey and garden seeds to furniture, carpets, sports equipment and boats.
- There are real exemptions. Energy, potash, fish, certain critical minerals, civil-aircraft articles and personal baggage are out of scope, and on the dairy list so are goods already covered by Section 232 duties (on the other two lists they are not; see the update above).
The deadline is customs entry, not despatch
All 3 proclamations use the same formula: the duty applies to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on 19 August 2026. Two things follow from that wording, and both catch people out.
- There is no exception for goods already in transit. I have read all 3 proclamations and none of them contains one. A shipment that leaves Canada on the 17th and clears customs on the 20th carries the duty. If CBP publishes transit relief later that would change it, but nothing published so far does, so the safe assumption is that only the entry date counts.
- Goods already in the US are not automatically clear. Withdrawal from a bonded warehouse for consumption is treated the same as entry, so stock sitting in a warehouse today and withdrawn after the 19th picks up the duty on withdrawal.
So the date to work backwards from is the one your customs entry is filed, not the one your pallet leaves on. For sea freight that lead time has largely gone already. For road freight from Canada it is days rather than weeks, and it is worth asking your broker for the specific date rather than assuming.
What it does to a landed cost
The arithmetic is blunt. A product with a $10 unit cost picks up an extra $5.00 of duty at the border. If it sells for $25, that is 20 points of margin gone in one entry date. Products with thin margins and Canadian origin are the ones to check first.
What I would do now
- List your variants with Canadian country of origin and find their HS codes - in Shopify both live under Products > variant > Shipping > Customs information.
- Check each code against the lists. There is a free checker on the front page - it takes 6, 8 or 10 digit codes and tells you which list a line sits on. If you would rather start from the category than the code, there is a reading of which everyday products are on the lists and which are not.
- For anything on a list, work out the new landed cost and decide whether the answer is a price change, a supplier conversation, or absorbing it knowingly. The date has gone, so the entries being filed this week are already carrying it. An unconscious 50 points is the only wrong option.
- Ask whoever files your entries which of yours were filed on or after the 19th, and check what is still sitting in a bonded warehouse. Withdrawal for consumption counts as entry, so stock that went in before the date picks the duty up on the way out.
- Remember the exemption check: on the dairy list, a line already under Section 232 does not take this duty as well. On the alcohol and general lists it does.
If you'd rather not do this by hand, this is the job Duty Diligence does: it reads the cost, HS code and origin you already keep in Shopify, shows the effective duty and landed margin per variant, and flags the rates that move on your own catalogue. Where the published schedule is behind an action, as it is on this one today, the app marks the affected lines provisional and puts the reason on the row. The snapshot is free and needs no card.
Sources: Federal Register documents 2026-14991 (alcoholic beverages), 2026-14992 (dairy) and 2026-14997 (general goods), published 23 July 2026; new HTS headings 9903.03.12-9903.03.16 and U.S. note 51 to subchapter III of chapter 99. Updated 31 October 2026 from CBP CSMS #69606660, CBP CSMS #69851916, CBP CSMS #70050970, CBP CSMS #70314289, the annexes to Proclamations 11061-11063 and Proclamation 11076; the checker lists are read from U.S. note 51 in Revision 22 of the schedule. Verify against the source before acting on any single line. Informational, not customs, legal or financial advice.