What will Canada Post implement for tariff collection on August 29?
Summary: The discussion revolves around concerns and speculation about changes to how tariffs will be managed for packages sent from Canada to the United States starting August 29, 2025. cottagewoman expresses concern about Canada Post not making an announcement and suggests that buyers will now have to prepay duties. Other participants like musicyouneed and ilikehockeyjerseys discuss doubts about Canada Post's ability to handle these changes and whether it would stop accepting U.S. parcels. Participants agree that collecting tariffs is not traditionally Canada Post's role, and highlight the complexity of implementing such a system. There is shared apprehension about how these changes might affect small businesses, with some participants contemplating suspending shipments to the U.S. until the situation stabilizes. An underlying sentiment is that the U.S. tariff policy's abrupt changes create a chaotic business environment, prompting sellers to reconsider their U.S. market strategy.
There will best no more 'duty paid' by the buyer, collected by US CBP or USPS. All duty must be prepaid before any package arrives in the US, yes even if sent via Canada Post. Just to get that answer off the table.
fungusamungus
·11 months agoThe answer to the problem of collecting Tarrifs should work like Ebay's Global Shipping Program.
The buyer see's up front what the customs or tarrif $ amount is plus any handling fees. If they want to buy the item. They pay those amounts and then the item arrives with no additional fees. All paid by the buyer not the seller.
reallynicestamps
·11 months agoSince eBay will no longer sell Canada Post labels, I better send out a new discount postage list to my private customers.
And plan to spend more time using my SnapShip/Solutions for Small Business account for postal shipping.
Couriers are much much more expensive for me than the postal system.
Even if some packages are returned.
rosscd57
·11 months agoWhy should Canada Post collect a tarriff that should be collected by US Customs?
FYI Etsy will stop making .Canada Post labels available to sellers on Aug 25 - yep just keep thinking.
So the Fedpre pay the tarriff and adujust your prices accordingly - if you can which is very doutfull that you will get it right. By the way - this is not going to work.
rosscd57
·11 months agoI screwed up the above post - here it is corrected.
Why should Canada Post collect a tarriff that should be collected by US Customs?
FYI Etsy will stop making Canada Post labels available to sellers on Aug 25 - yep just keep thinking.
So the Fedex, UPS and the like will want the tariff pre payed - so adujust your prices accordingly - if you can and it is very doutfull that you will get it right.
By the way. This is not going to work.
chicweb
·11 months agoWhy would Canada Post do anything? Duties are paid by the receivers, not the senders. It will by DDU like usual, the recipient need to pay duties.
That's the same with the other countries in the world. Nothing will be different for the United States. Sellers doesn't have to care about this at all (buyers are responsible for duties). It is written everywhere in the checkout process.
eBay protects sellers in this case. (I think you don't even have to refund buyers if they refuse to pay duties, but dont quote me on that).
Canada Post doesn't have anything to do with collecting duties of other countries govnerments.
mrdutch1001
·11 months agowait for it...wait for it...will eBay do likewise?..My other selling site (Etsy) has just removed the ability to purchase Canada Post shipping labels through Etsy for shipments to the USA...Etsy expects sellers to pay the duties and tariffs by using those shipping companies and carriers that require sellers to pre-pay the duties and tariffs...Etsy's reasoning(much like DT's) have the seller pay the tariffs to spare the buyer that cost...Etsy's statement being: "By using a DDP model, you can present a tariff-inclusive price on Etsy, eliminating surprises for the buyer upon delivery. This also eliminates the risk of your buyer refusing to pay a tariff after their item has already made the journey to its destination."
Really??? NO Way! Buyer pays or I don't ship to USA!
chicweb
·11 months agoThey will lose canadian sellers. Pure and simple.
If Canada Post decide to force DDP, they have to reflect it in their shipping prices automatically. If they don't (or if eBay doesn't charge it on their side, at checkout), I will just stop sending to the USA altogether.
I won't pay tariff of other countries.
dache_us
·11 months agoThis would hurt Canadian sellers more and isn't a real solution. Canada Post should step up like all the other smaller cross border shippers have.
And in the executive order, the burden is shifting towards transport carriers and postal services. Whether you agree with it is regardless. Canadian businesses expect their crown corp postal service to be on top of this.
john_koenig99
·11 months agoI'm not completely against that, in principle, but...Why should I, as a taxpayer in Canada, subsidize a Crown Corporation to help the Orange Taco get away with his backwards, protectionists policies?
I would think that, who ever wants to keep doing business with buyers in the US, should pay to play, and use private couriers for that.
marnotom!
·11 months agoConsider that you and I and over 41 million others are shareholders in this Crown Corporation.
flipistics
·11 months agoI'm not surprised. Etsy's response to the collection of sales tax, for people who are tax registered, was also for sellers to include the tax in the asking price. It's actually the only reason I don't sell there.
ilikehockeyjerseys
·11 months agohttps://www.businessinsider.com/some-european-postal-services-sellers-are-suspending-us-bound-shipments-2025-8
It's already happening with other postal services. It's reasonable to expect that Canada Post might be forced to do the same.
The simplified version is that packages without duties paid won't be allowed into the US, and most other international postal services do not have systems in place to collect and remit the duties for another country. This is why some people predict that Canada Post will stop accepting US shipments on or before the 29th.
There is another thread that has a good detailed writeup of all the info so far.
rdemaree
·11 months agoThe problem is the trump administration/ CBP is threatening DDU with flat rates of $80, 160 or 200 per package.
I guess this is their way of saying "yeah, we are unprepared for these lightning fast changes that were ill thought out and we work for a criminal thug so we want to attempt to pass the burden of the process and fees onto other countries/ sellers"
this is a trainwreck and will be a mess for a few months and still will be subject to fluidity until trump is impeached or leaves office.
Most of my stuff is CUSMA compliant so im just waiting to hear a crystal clear method of proving that to the last decimal for my shipments.
For my non-cusma stuff ill just be going the DDP route and baking the large fees into the shipping cost for Americans. Ultimately ill probably carry less non-CUSMA stuff and actively focused on selling more in brick and mortars in Canada and selling more to international locations.
Hopefully the dust settles by november so Q4 isnt totally ruined.
dinomitesales
·11 months agoThis was my opinion as well for the longest time.
Now? Doesn't seem to apply. United States has just decided they don't want to play nice and be like every other country on the planet that assesses/charges their citizens for imports. It appears as though they just plan on refusing anything that isn't DDP. No one is spared. Global postal systems will need to adapt if they want to send things to the States.
It's utterly ridiculous. But what isn't these days.
cottagewoman
OP11 months agoGiven the complexities, legal requirements, and poor experience, many postal providers will be suspending DDU service or changing delivery options to the US. In light of this, effective August 25, Etsy will be suspending shipping label purchases on Etsy for Australia Post, Canada Post, Evri and Royal Mail for US bound packages. We are in close contact with these carriers and will reactivate label offerings on Etsy when they are able to support orders into the US with DDP options.
ilikehockeyjerseys
·11 months agoI assume eBay will do the same thing.
Hopefully if they take that same precaution, it doesn't happen overnight and we at least get a few days warning.
sin-n-dex
·11 months agolotzofuniquegoodies
·11 months ago@sin-n-dex
Have you ever heard of a US seller being penalilzed for to the moon shipping for intl. sales?I've seen more examples than I care to remember. Sellers build in "handling charges" as a matter of standard practice. They have to have a fee to cover either expenses and/or cookie jar insurance. As a side it would be a reasonal guess there are loads of sellers across all borders that could have discounted shipping turned on....but don't!! Similar to the concept of sellers that have restocking charges like for buyers remorse situations. For your situation at your discretion you could call it "the tourist" or "DJT" special price for foreigners.
I believe in the past there were limits to how much a seller could charge for shipping in certain categories. I don't think that is the case anymore.
As per eBay:
International sellers
International sellers listing directly on eBay.com in the US are also required to specify a shipping cost within the specified limit for the category.🤣😂🤣
sin-n-dex
·11 months agocottagewoman
OP11 months agonhl_automotive
·11 months agoWhere are you getting this info? I see nothing in the links about duty being prepaid by seller.
cottagewoman
OP11 months agohttps://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Summary-Overview-of-US-De-Minimis-repeal-and-effects/td-p/526110#M165477
dache_us
·11 months agoIf the small cross border shippers can do it, Canada post should be able to do it. Really feels like the Canadian government doesn't care about small businesses.
marnotom!
·11 months agoGenerally speaking, lean and mean small businesses can turn on a dime much better than larger ones can.
lily-alan
·11 months ago100%. That's exactly how I feel. Our government like most governments, make sure things work for multibillion dollar corporations, but they could care less about small business. Otherwise they'd rethink this whole Canada Post debacle. That and they're cowing to Trump imo, so they can again, pander to our multibiion corporations and give them some kind of security with all these crazy tariffs. We're collateral damage. We're nothing to our Canadian government.
The way I see it, the little guy is always collateral damage because ulitimately, the uber rich want a bunch of low pay wage slaves with no union protection or universal medical, to work in their factories. The Canadian government makes tax money from enough of these multibillion corporation who aren't on corporate welfare drawing endless subsidies, that they could care less about us. Our government's deal making with these tariffs is for big business, not us.
john_koenig99
·11 months agoI won't prepay any duty for no seller, US or not.
If that's going to be their game play, I will just cancel every single order from sellers down there (if I get any before removing the option for US buyers to buy anything from me).
mrdutch1001
·11 months ago"I won't prepay any duty for no seller, US or not."
1000% agree with you on that!
Firstly, I do not believe Canada Post will have a functional plan in place by August 29th...
I will not ship anything to the USA. Unfortunately, my USA buyers are having to pay the price(in more ways than one) for their USA Gov't's "We're Gonna Get Rich Quick" scheme...
Until my USA customers actually DO pay the tariffs, my shipping to USA will remain as "NO shipping to the USA"!
I will not help DT in his deception and efforts to disguise how tariffs are supposed to work...I will not be a part of DT's greedy "GetRichQuick" Scheme ...
Also, IMHO, I don't feel CUSMA compliant shipments are "safe" either...just as any legit "gift" shipment sent to a friend or relative in the USA will not be "safe"...anything & everything shipped from Canada to USA will be deemed "suspicious" as Canadian shipments will be treated as "guilty" until proven "innocent" for attempting to avoid tariffs....
In order to get through this crucial period I shall be hoping that Canadians will purchase more Canadian products and that all of us Canadian sellers will see an increase in sales from within Canada. It is important for us Canadian sellers to put forth additional efforts to support the economy of own country and to get beyond this relying on the USA... We need growth from within Canada and if possible expand to other countries where it is feasible to do so...Best wishes and good luck to all Canadian sellers!
lotzofuniquegoodies
·11 months ago@mrdutch1001
@john_koenig99
How many US sellers ship to Canada for free or eat any applicable taxes? Pretty sure that would be a quick count to zero to get the idea. It is beyond me why any Canadian seller would want to do or should have to do that for a US buyer.
Maybe give us a wb where we can choose the incoterm that works best for us and call it day. Like as it states on any listing shipped to an international location:
john_koenig99
·11 months agoOf course, I had to get quoted twice to realize my mistake...😁
I meant to say "`I won't prepay any duty for no BUYER, US or not."
Growing old is no fun 🙄
mrdutch1001
·11 months agojust so you know I was quite confident you meant BUYER, not seller...which is why I went ahead and agreed with the statement...but I guess, in all honesty, I should have pointed out the error in the wording at that time...Sorry, I was too busy editing my own comment to make sure I got the wording correct with my own post...
ilikehockeyjerseys
·11 months agoYou pay it upfront, but you're obviously not going to sell something to somebody and eat the cost. Going forward, the way to look at this would be like how you look at shipping costs.
If it costs you $20 at the point of sale for a shipping label to ship a buyer their item, you are going to work that cost into the item either as a line item at checkout "Shipping" or by building it into the Buy It Now cost. You are the one who directly pays for the label, but the customer pre-emptively reimburses you through paying for shipping (or paying a higher BIN w/ free shipping). The duty will be the same way once people figure it out. If a duty increases the cost of your item by $30, you would likely find a way to work that charge in at checkout and then you would pass on that $30 to Canada Post when you print the label.
I suspect that once it is hammered out, for the sellers who can get their head around the liability and complexity, that is how it will work. The major issue will be eBay not having built in calculators to include with your shipping policy.
From an economic POV, some would argue that the seller bears the cost regardless of the order it's paid, but that's a rabbit hole I won't go down, and it's not really what you're talking about. You're just talking about from a nuts and bolts how is this paid.
Personally, I may not ever go back to shipping to the USA because of concerns over the liability of sending hundreds of items to the USA that don't qualify for the de minimis. The kind of items that I've sold to the USA would be unlikely to appeal to them at a 15-35 percent markup (high if there are additional fees). Add in the liability of sending hundreds or thousands of items with customs declarations, where an error made in good faith could possibly open a seller up to fines. Higher costs and liabilities for much lower gain than before the de minimis. It will not make any sense to ship to the USA for most sellers.
dache_us
·11 months agoIt'll still be an informal entry though. Really isn't as complicated as you make it seem. You can use chatgpt or Grok on X, to give you suggestions on the HST code. Other than that, it makes no sense not to adapt and push forward.
videotimeplus
·11 months agoThe sender has to pay the tariff? I thought the recipient pays the tariff like how it always worked, or did I miss something? Im so confused...
rdemaree
·11 months agoHe’s not very bright because most companies will just pass the cost onto the consumer.
Keep in mind these tariffs are all illegal to begin with and in court currently and likely to either be struck down or at the very least watered down.
Nobody knows what’s really going on and it all will for sure change, especially when his tariffs are struck down in court.
It is a giant mess but you can’t expect much from a literal bankrupt criminal conspiracy theorist conman. And those aren’t my opinions about him, I’m literally just objectively describing who he is and what he is.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·11 months ago@rdemaree
My guess DJT in his long & spoiled life on this planet has never actually gone into a post office to send.......anything....so has zero grasp of the inner workings of how import and export .... the getting something from A to B and how things are "supposed" to work. What is the tradeoff? We get his baffling reality of how he thinks should work!!! Added cost and challenges be darned!!!
rdemaree
·11 months agoA trump second term was never going to go well for anyone. He got fired for a reason and lost 2 popular votes in a row and barely squeaked out a plurality this time around.
I know it’s easier said than done but with patience things will settle into something more manageable. I just wish this chaos wasn’t happening as we go into 4th quarter.
I’ve already mentally coached myself to essentially say I’ll lose 2000-4000 $ from now until the end of the year due to all of the instability. I am actively seeking Canadian brick and mortars to carry my product and will focus on expanding my international reach as well. I’ve got my work cut out for me that’s for sure.
I’m hoping once the dust settles I’ll be at 40% Canadian customers, 20% international, 40% American
Currently it’s 15% Canadian, 15% international, 70% USA
I start my first Canadian brick and mortar next month and intend on expanding my product into more and will try and shore up more international buyers too particularly the UK. I need to balance my customer base more that’s for sure. A national Canadian trend in trade tbh
reallynicestamps
·11 months agoI for one would be happy to put a link to your B&M on my FB page. I have several artists among my friends. @rdemaree
rdemaree
·11 months agoI appreciate the gesture!
Linking to my eBay shop for now would be more helpful unless they’re in the greater Toronto area, at whixh point pointing towards the BM store would be better.
Thanks!
I’m going all in on trying to maximize Canadian reach. This will be a good attitude to have even long after dump is long gone.
chicweb
·11 months agoI have only 20% of my sales going to the USA. It's a big chunk, but not the core of my business. I estimate 3 or 4 months to get back that part of the market with my current flow of new items added daily and the grow of the sales (in Canada/International to compensate that lost).
But, I know that sellers that their main market is the USA will have to adjust more effectively. That's why more tools for canadian sellers would be very useful (duties at checkout, as an example).
flipistics
·11 months agoIt makes sense that they'd do that since it allows Trump to sort of keep his promise of other people paying them. Of course, it will just mean that companies will apply the tariff rate at checkout so it's still the customer in the US that ultimately pays.
In effect, the USA just brought in a variable rate VAT that's hidden from the public in the item price. That's not too far off the truth since the vast majority of items everyday people buy probably aren't produced in the USA anyway (and still won't be).
hansatrade
·11 months agoYou are definitely right, but sometimes a weird problem needs a weird solution.
hansatrade
·11 months agoUnfortunately/fortunately I have to go to Europe unexpectedly on Aug 26. My store will be closed for 3 weeks - so guys you have 3 weeks to fix the problem and find a reasonable solution. [just kidding 😁]
I will check this forum every day!
Here is a good news for all ChitChats customers. I got this from them yesterday:
phc64
·11 months agoFrom Reuters:
Nordic postal operators pause shipments to US as Trump ends parcel tariff relief
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Norwegian and Swedish-Danish postal groups Posten Bring and PostNord are pausing parcel shipments to the United States ahead of the scrapping of a U.S. customs tax loophole that allows duty-free entry for low-value packages, they said on Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration said last month it would suspend the global "de minimis" exemption, which also allows minimal paperwork, for international shipments under $800 effective August 29.
"Due to the short timeframe to adapt to the new requirements, PostNord is temporarily halting shipments," the company owned by the Swedish and Danish governments said in a statement.
The twists and turns in Trump's tariff policies have roiled global financial markets.
Under the executive order suspending the "de minimis" exemption, low-value packages sent to the U.S. will face "all applicable duties", according to the White House.
"The details surrounding this have not yet been clarified by the U.S. customs authorities, and no system solutions have been developed that postal companies can use," Norway's state-owned Posten Bring said in a separate statement.
It said postal companies in Europe were working together to gain clarity.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik and Alex Richardson)
joels-retrocade
·11 months agoI'm of course hoping nothing will happen and it will be business as usual lol. Altough it would be entertaining to see what happens if all these places just stop accepting mail to the US. That would be chaos and I'd have to assume it wouldnt take long for the americans to fold
phc64
·11 months agoAs far as I know, the only foreign post office that expects to have the necessary system in place to collect tariffs and remit them to the US customs authorities is the Royal Mail in the UK. A number of European countries have long had agreements for their postal services to collect each other's VAT sales taxes, but I do not believe that Canada Post has ever collected any foreign country's tariffs or taxes. We can't expect Canada Post to go through the considerable expense and effort required to establish such a system at a time when US tariff policies are constantly being modified. And I can't expect Diane at my local rural post office to suddenly become an expert in US tariff regulations.
Yesterday someone posted on Discogs (a record/CD selling site) that the Dutch post office is already saying that they will stop accepting US-bound parcels (but I have not been able to verify this).
musicyouneed
·11 months agoI just can't see Canada Post getting involved in collecting tariffs.
So Canada Post is going to have to determine the tariff rate for different COO. If I ship a CD made in West Germany, wouldn't the tariff rate be different from one made in Japan. What about CD's that are made in Canada and may be covered by CUSMA. Or what about the CD's made in the US? How is Canada Post going to verify this. Is Canada Post going to be responsible if people lie about the COO. I think it is going to be a mess any way you look at it. I might just put myself on time away for a while.
flipistics
·11 months agoCanada Post probably wouldn't verify anything. They'd have you state that the information you provide is accurate, and if the border agents decide otherwise they'd levy a hefty fine which CP would pass on to the person shipping the item.
I do wonder if they might just turn shipping to the USA off completely. I think Purolator bought a company a year or so ago that deals specifically with this, so they might push people in that direction.
fergua3
·11 months agoWhich highlights another problem for CP. How do they collect the fine from the person who sent the package? If the sender refuses to pay them CP would have to sue them in court? What a mess that would be.
This whole situation, if it plays out the way we think it might, will be untenable and CP may have to refuse delivery to the US
lotzofuniquegoodies
·11 months agoAs it is this will be a giant nightmare for almost any size business, small or large along with anyone that just drops in the red box. Can you imagine for someone sending a small gift to a family member? I guess 1 way to cut down the number of incoming parcels to the USA in 1 very sad fell swoop!!!
flipistics
·11 months agoProbably the same way other couriers handle it. I would assume Purolator has experience with it at least.
ilikehockeyjerseys
·11 months agoIf Canada Post hasn't said anything, I assume that they have no pending solution and there might be a reasonable chance that they either won't accept US packages, or they will accept them and there will be a high risk of return to sender (ala China COI packages).
I've mentioned this in other posts, but my cutoff for US packages is going to be Monday morning. That will give them 4 days to get through customs to be in transit in the USA with USPS. I don't think I've ever seen a package take more than 2-3 days to get through the Montreal to New York customs route. Duties are assessed by customs, not by USPS, USPS only collects them (which they claim they cannot do). So my theory is that if a package is already cleared and in transit with USPS by the end of the 28th, I shouldn't have to worry about return to sender.
Unless you have major cash flow issues to the point where you can't survive a week without shipping to the US, I think that it would be advisable for anybody using Canada Post to prepare themselves to block US orders for at least a week or so while we wait to see what the outcome is for those who send with Canada Post. This is assuming that we don't receive concrete information from Canada Post prior to the 29th.
If you ask me to make a prediction about what will happen, Canada Post will cease taking US parcels for the time being. With the strike and all the other issues, are they really going to develop a DDP system essentially overnight when the future of the company is uncertain?
cottagewoman
OP11 months agoI agree 100% - I don't think they'll have any mechanism in place to collect duties, either ad valorem or the 80/160/200 flat rate system.
reallynicestamps
·11 months agoCanada Post have been collecting Canadian duty and sales taxes for decades.
They charge the importer $9.95 service charge at delivery.
The importer either pays or does not get their package.
The tariffs are another question.
Canada has put some "retaliatory" tariffs on some US products.
But most of those are on industrial scale imports.
So we are asking if Canada Post will be collecting US tariffs on exported goods?
Why would they?
It is not Canada's job to collect foreign taxes.
It is possible that USPS* may be collecting import fees (including state sales taxes and tariffs) but they would NOT be deciding how much that should be.
That is the job of US Customs.
My takeaway is:
IT IS NOT THE JOB OF CANADA OR ANY CANADIAN GOVERNMENT AGENCY TO COLLECT FOREIGN TAXES.
*Couriers might, because they have a mechanism in place to do so and charge substantial fees for the service.
musicyouneed
·11 months agoWhere did you get that information about Canada Post mail?
cottagewoman
OP11 months agohansatrade
·11 months agoI posed the same question to our post office manager today. His answer was: "I have no idea, what are you talking about".