Shipping to the US from Canada in 2026: duties, CUSMA and your checkout

What changed, in order

The rules changed in stages, and many 2025 guides describe regimes that no longer apply. The dates below come from US government sources and the Government of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service.

Which duties can apply to one product

Start with the product, not the parcel. A single order can carry several layers of duty depending on what is inside and how it is entered.

• Normal (MFN) duty: the ordinary US rate for the product’s tariff classification. Many goods have a low or zero rate; some do not.
• Section 301: a 10% tariff on products of Canada from July 24, 2026. USTR’s notice says it does not apply to products of Canada entered free of duty under the USMCA, the US name for CUSMA.
• Section 338: a 50% tariff on a list of Canadian goods. The White House says it applies regardless of whether a good originates under USMCA. Its examples range from wine to hockey sticks to cement; energy, potash, fish, critical minerals and goods under Section 232 are excluded.
• Section 232: separate tariffs on specific products such as steel and aluminum, with their own rules.

The Section 338 list is set by proclamation and can change. Check each product against the current list rather than relying on a summary, including this one.

Classify every product before anything else

Duty follows the product’s tariff classification and country of origin, so both need to live in your product data. In Shopify, collecting duties at checkout requires Harmonized System (HS) codes and a country or region of origin on your products, plus a shipping carrier that supports delivered duty paid (DDP) labels.

Classify at the variant level where materials or components differ. A cotton and a wool version of the same garment, or a gift set that mixes goods made in different countries, can carry different duty. Record where each classification came from: your customs broker, a supplier document or a formal ruling.

Flag any product that could fall on the Section 338 list. A 50% tariff changes whether that product should be offered to US customers at all, so pricing, shipping options and US marketing need to know about it.

CUSMA origin is paperwork, not marketing

CUSMA duty-free treatment depends on the goods meeting the agreement’s rules of origin and on the claim being made at entry. It is a different test from a “Made in Canada” claim on a product page, and a product can pass one and fail the other.

Keep the origin documentation behind each qualifying product, and make sure your carrier or broker actually files the claim. A qualifying product that crosses without a valid claim is treated like any other product of Canada.

The agreement itself is under review. On July 1, 2026, USTR said the United States did not agree to renew it in its current form, and that it remains in force while issues are resolved. Under Article 34.7, when a party does not confirm an extension, the parties hold a joint review every year. Plan for the treatment to change with notice rather than assuming it will hold indefinitely.

Postal or courier is now a customs decision

Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service summarizes the difference. Most goods shipped to the United States with Canada Post are subject to MFN duties and Section 301 tariffs, and those duties must be prepaid before the goods cross the border. Commercial shipments may avoid the tariffs if the goods are CUSMA compliant.

The postal route has its own entry rules. CBP’s new informal entry for mail, in effect since July 24, 2026, covers merchandise valued at US$2,500 or less. It must be filed by the owner or purchaser of the goods or a licensed customs broker, and it requires a customs bond. From October 22, 2026, merchandise claiming duty-free treatment under a free trade agreement is excluded from it.

The practical result: if your products qualify under CUSMA and the saving matters, compare courier services that file the CUSMA claim for you. If your products don’t qualify, or face Section 338 anyway, the postal price may still win. Run the comparison on real orders, including brokerage and remittance fees, not on rate cards alone.

Decide who pays, and when

A US customer surprised by duty on delivery may refuse the parcel, leaving you with return shipping and a lost sale. Charging duties and import taxes at checkout, and shipping delivered duty paid, gives the customer a known total and puts the payment where the decision is made.

Shopify offers this natively. Its duties and import taxes feature needs HS codes, origin data and a DDP-capable carrier. Shopify’s help centre lists a transaction fee temporarily lowered to 0.5% since February 2, 2025, and 0.85% with Shopify Payments, or 1.5% with other payment providers, when the temporary rate ends. The fee applies to every order with calculated duties, even when the amount is zero.

Shopify Managed Markets is the other route. Global-e becomes the merchant of record, handling duties, tax remittance and commercial invoices, and orders ship duty-paid to most destinations. It is available to certain stores in Canada, requires Shopify Payments and costs 3.5% per transaction on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans or 3.25% on Plus, plus currency conversion fees.

The choice is about control as much as cost. Handling duties yourself keeps customer and tax relationships in your hands; a merchant of record takes on compliance but changes who the customer buys from. Model both on your actual order mix before committing.

Price the whole order, not just the product

Duties change the economics of free-shipping thresholds, bundles and discounts. A promotion that works in Canada can lose money on a US order once duty is added.

Build a landed-cost view for your best US sellers: product cost, shipping, duty by entry route, brokerage or remittance fees and payment fees. Then decide per market whether to absorb duty in the price, show it at checkout or stop offering certain products to US customers.

Keep US prices and messages consistent across the store, product feeds and marketplaces. A customer who sees one total in an ad and another at checkout loses trust even when the difference is legitimate duty.

Keep a rules log with review dates

The rules changed three times in the first eight months of 2026. Keep a short log of the rules your store relies on, with the source, the date you checked it and the next review date. Add October 22, 2026 and July 1, 2027 now.

Primary sources are more reliable than pages that summarize them. CBP’s e-commerce FAQ, the Trade Commissioner Service’s tariff pages and USTR’s notices change when the rules change; carrier and platform help pages can lag behind. When they disagree, follow the official source and ask your carrier or broker to confirm.

This article is general information, not legal or customs advice. For classification, origin and entry decisions, use a licensed customs broker. The cost of advice is small next to a year of mis-declared duty.

A checklist before the next shipping season

• Add HS codes and country of origin to every product and variant you ship to the United States.
• Mark the products that qualify under CUSMA and keep the origin documentation behind each claim.
• Check each product against the current Section 338 list and decide whether to keep offering it to US customers.
• Compare postal and courier routes on real orders, including duty, brokerage and remittance fees.
• Choose between Shopify’s duties at checkout, Managed Markets or another solution, and test a complete order.
• Update your shipping and returns policies for US customers, including what happens to duty on returned or refused parcels.
• Put October 22, 2026 and July 1, 2027 in the calendar, each with an owner.