I am honestly quite surprised I couldn’t find a thread on this, but unless you have lived in a cage, you will have heard that Donald Trump imposed massive new tariffs on goods exported to the US.
However, previously all goods valued under USD 800 were exempted from import duties - this is called de minimis threshold.
I tried to Google for some answers, but the only thing I could find is that goods coming from China are now banned from using de minimis threshold (allegedly to combat Temu & Shein), meaning all Chinese exports to US are affected by the new tariffs.
But what about other countries? Is de minimis threshold still alive? Does that mean goods below USD 800 from other countries are still unaffected by these tariffs (for now)?
For the moment it appears to be targeted just against China. As someone who operates from Australia, with a Chinese 3PL (as many of our products are only produced in China) and I ship worldwide, this is devastating. Still trying to work out how to get my Shopify store to accurately pass on the Tariffs.
The de minimis threshold is being withdrawn from ALL countries, meaning it applies to all countries from 29th August this year. It’s a big headache for B2C selling into the USA. Carriers are scrambling to set up methods to collect these tariffs. Here’s the info from the White House Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries – The White House
Adding some new info: Parcels will be refused at the border if the products are non-CUSMA/USMCA compliant, and if the duty is not prepaid on those items!
Canada Post is partnering with Zonos so you’ll have an app to pre-pay US duty fees when you export there. I’m not sure yet if the private carriers are also doing this. I think DHL might already offer this.
Remember, if your products are made in Canada, in whole or in part, they should be completely exempt as long as you provide your HS code and state that it is made in Canada (a/k/a “CUSMA/USMCA compliant”). Ideally, you should get familiar with the Commercial Invoice (export form) and possibly Certificate Of Origin as well. Most private carriers make Commercial Invoices automatically and submit them digitally when you buy labels online, but check just to be sure. With UPS I think you have to opt-in for digital.
Hi Elaine,
You seem to be the most informed & on top of this. My brain completely shuts down whenever -I start researching - i’m so confused, overwhelmed & freaked out at the forms. Any chance you could help me?
@HennaCanada There’s so much, I hardly know where to begin… but this may help as a start:
) only Canadian postal service shipments to the uSA (not sure about the other direction) absolutely require duty being prepaid, regardless whether they are exempt from any tariffs under USMCA. It’s a bit unfair, but this was put in place to deter people sending illegal goods through the mail, which apparently got to be quite a problem for them. So for now, everything through the post has to go prepaid duty. You can register at the Canada Post website as a small business to use their Zonos connection for free to prepay/be billed. How to prepay U.S. duties with Zonos | Canada Post
2.) netParcel is great for private courier rates, you can choose to be billed directly for any duty or leave it up to the recipient to pay upon delivery. You can get Canada Post rates there too, and be billed by them later for the duty fees, but I’m not sure they offer the full range of services.
4.) Certificate of Origin only applies to items made within the USA, CA or MX, regardless where you are shipping from. If the product is made anywhere else, USMCA/CUSMA doesn’t apply and the product will be tariffed.
BTW I have been shipping my products to the USA via UPS & Purolator with my Certificate of Origin attached to the outside of the parcel (needs to be in a pouch or ziploc bag, like a packing slip), I have opted to be billed for any duty, and so far NO DUTY or extra fees have been charged. I’ve used Purolator Ground and UPS Expedited, labels printed from NetParcel. They automatically produce a digital Commercial Invoice so you don’t have to worry about that step, but to check off USMCA, they ask you to agree to attach the Cert of Or to the outside. Technically you shouldn’t need one if the shipment is valued under $2500, but right now it’s good to do it anyway, just to be sure. It’s a lot of work in the beginning to figure out how your products can apply, but for me it’s been totally worth it.
I’ve enabled the duties on Shopify for customers who want to pay it & to buy the Canada Post shipping labels.
The CUSMA:
I’ve been to the page you linked to, but there’s no actual tutorials. I would love one for how to fill out the COO properly. Or more info on how to be pre-approved.
They say that they need proof – what kind of proof? Video of me painting?
It’s those in depth details that I need help with L
I read in forums that UPS has been charging full tariffs on items that are CUSMA verified… But you’re not. I’m so confused….
The hardest and most tedious part is finding out how your goods qualify, which will tell you if your Origin Criteria is A, B, C, or D. When you get to the “method of qualification” part (see link above) you need to look up the HS code of the product to find out what its specific rules are in Annex 4-B (see below) . Also, if you make the item yourself, you may also need to look up the HS codes of the individual parts used to make the item and hopefully you’ll know where at least some of the parts were made (depends on what the final product’s rules are).
It can be a bit overwhelming at first, and it will take a bit of reading, but it’s not impossible. I found out that for my handmade jewelry, criteria is B (made in Canada with foreign parts), and the product rules according to HS code are “tariff shift” (TS). You’ll see what that means when you go through both of those links.
By the way, your proof could be your receipts for the materials/supplies you bought to make the item, manufacturing info printed on the product tag if you’re just reselling, photos of the item mid-completion if you have any, even your registered business info/name or tax #’s that shows you’re a serious merchant for that product.
I assume I’m not be getting tariffed because I’m filling out the form with the correct “origin criterion” (for me, B) and method of qualification (TS) required for that product, AND using the language/jargon that they themselves use in the HS classification text to describe the item. I’m also selling low value items, most of my orders are under $100, that might be helping too.
Actually, when you ship via Post now, it’s pretty much the same $$ (depending where you buy your labels) if not more, because of the required duty fees.
Regardless of CUSMA, regardless of Certificate of Origin present or not, if you ship via Post to the USA, according to the new import law you MUST charge duty plus processing fees = $1.99 + 10% (of item value?) + duty rate in advance. On a $20 necklace, that’s CAD $10.99 BEFORE the cost of postage (which starts around $9). So all together for Post, that’s at least $19.99 for Tracked Packet (5-10 business days). You can get Purolator Ground US for around $16.50-$18 (4-8 business days) and no duty on top of that because CUSMA is accepted if you fill out the form correctly. If you try to ship via Post to the USA without prepaid duty, your parcel will be rejected.
You can get Purolator labels via Shopify shipping, or a 3rd-party shipping service that might be slightly cheaper. UPS Standard is super cheap via NetParcel (about $12.50) but I’m not sure yet if they’re billing for UPS’s weird new $10 fee for that specific service. When I asked Net’s support they had no idea about it, so I’m assuming they don’t charge it due to some special agreement with UPS. But I recently shipped a parcel by this method just to see if they bill me for it later, although it hasn’t arrived yet.
Hi again!
I had to take a bit of a brain break, but i’m back at trying to figure out this chaos…
I signed up for NetParcel & I see:
“A CUSMA processing fee may be applicable (for example, the UPS Fee is $21.25 USD per line item on the customs invoice”
plus:
Potential Additional Fees: Entry Preparation Fee, Brokerage Disbursement Fee, Merchandise Processing Fee, etc…
So they might play nice for a few orders, but they *can slap us with $40 in fees for a $20 necklace, right?
Definitely share with the group as you learn more.
We’re curious to follow along and see how things pan out. The removal of the De Minimis exemption is difficult enough, but all these additional fees stacked on top is brutal!
Especially when many of them appear to be totally separate and apart from the tariff levies
@HennaCanada I believe the “$21.25 per line item” is USA → CAN, and applies to anything beyond the first 3 line items and it’s either on certain services only or if you use a special broker that isn’t the default (I can’t recall which). You can check UPS’s documentation on that to be sure, but so far I have not been charged such a fee shipping when via UPS Expedited to USA with only 1 line item on the Commercial Invoice. I’m waiting to see if I get dinged the $10 for Standard though.
BTW most of the time when officials quote “CUSMA” they mean USA → CAN, and “USMCA” when it’s CAN → USA. There are different rules with either.
The best I’ve had so far is with Purolator Ground US. No sneaky fees to speak of yet…
CUSMA is so much easier to say… hahaha
I’ve tried talking to UPS for over an hour. Everyone is gave me a different answer. It’s infuriating. I was told that the $21 processing fee is from Canada to the USA, but only after a value of $60. Another person told me that there’s no $21 fee, but brokerage still needs to be paid either way & there’s no way to know what the brokerage fee will be ahead of time. The documentation confuses me… I’m seeing that there is a $2 per pakg fee + $14 minimum or 2% for disbursement.
Purolator told me that it’s actually UPS that handles their shipping to the states, but Purolator is the customer.
On Reddit, i’m seeing that Fedex International Connect Plus on Clickship includes all brokerage fees, so no unexpected charges later. Have you any experience with that?
I tested out NetParcel today. Do you have a volume discount with them? I recently had a henna order to the USA, Canada Post shipping - tariffs paid. So i used that same box size, weight & value to see what the shipping would be with NetParcel if it was my CUSMA art. My customer paid $14.44 with tariffs using Canada Post in Shopify. The same package started at $12 UPS on NetParcel - not really a savings. I checked with ClickShip - it was more expensive than Canada Post with tariffs. So am i just missing a volume discount?
Thanks for sharing this discussion. The new tariff changes definitely raise concerns for small businesses relying on the de minimis threshold. It’ll be interesting to see how merchants adjust their pricing and shipping strategies to stay competitive.
but this may help as a start: