Ebay DOT com is putting a warning on Canadian listings

[rdemaree]

So apparently ebay .c om is putting a warning on Canadian listings saying tariffs will be due for packages going into the USA pon delivery.

There are many things wrong with this.

1. This completely sidesteps CUSMA compliant listings (which I have been approved to sell via a customs broker). This warning basically assumes everyone is selling things made in China via UPS or Fedex. Its lazy and will hurt Canadian sellers.

2. This isn't how it works for postal shipments. For postal network shipments the tariffs must be paid up front and for CUSMA there are no tariffs.

Are we just toast until October when they get the international seller program up or until Canada Post re-enables shipping to the USA and ebay lets you get Canadian labels again?

I just think Ebay's approach is a broad brush and lazy approach.

I have jumped throgh hoops and went through hours of classifying my items and being approved by a broker for CUSMA rates and then I see this warning about tariffs on all of my listings. 

This will no doubt siphon hundreds of dollars or even 1K+ out of my pocket until they get their act together. 

[wilsonharborsales]

We are toast until October or whenever EIS rolls out

[rdemaree]

Man this really sucks for small businesses. 

Apparently Canada Post won't be elligible for CUSMA compliance and nor will any postal networks. The idea appears to be to squeeze out as many small packages from the USA as possible. 

You will literally HAVE TO use a courier like UPS or Fedex which charges more than what the tariffs on non-CUSMA stuff would cost on items under $100 which i'd assume is most of small business shipments. 

Unless you have access to something like Chit Chats/ Stallion express AND are selling CUSMA compliant stuff you are more or less done shipping to the USA until the supreme court shoots these tariffs down and trump throws a baby hissy fit over it. 

By the time this is all sorted by the supreme court Q4 will be over and tons of businesses will no longer be operating.

I feel like I can ride this out but it is going to be ugly. I have already cut many trump supporters out of my life over this ( I moved to Canada from the USA 12 years ago btw) and I also stopped supporting or following public figures/ businesses that support him and have no intentntions of going back on that. 

You either have to be totally foolish or totally cruel to follow this "man" still in 2025.

[wilsonharborsales]

The whole point of this policy is to destroy foreign export businesses so that domestic businesses can grow. It is flawed logic.

The problem is that if you find a way around the import restrictions somehow, they will simply declare it a loophole and create a new restriction.

The new administration does not believe in global trade. They are looking to revive the economies of the Victorian era and the Western frontier, where everything was made and consumed domestically.

[rdemaree]

I wonder how we could effectively pick up more EU sales, particularly UK

I am focusing my efforts on selling to Canadians and International (EU/ UK specifically) going forward in my growth as a business.

Ill still ship to the usa but im not going to shape my business strategy around it anymore. Canada 1st. 

[easoss]

Hate to be a killjoy but the US market is damaged beyond repair EIS or not. Once the story that a well possibly has poison in it nobody will drink from it. EIS may recover some sales but there will be a drop off. 10, 20, 30% who knows. And putting faith in the Supreme Court to do the right thing is laughable. 

[belowthemark]

I still don't understand why the federal government isn't offering any solutions? A subsidized 3PL service that picks and ships, would save thousands of businesses overnight. Wouldn't even be that expensive to operate and tariffs would be paid on the wholesale value.

IMO DYKPost is the best option right now, even for those out of province. I pay tariffs on all my shipments, but the ability to use a domestic USPS label from pirateship or shipsy, is more cost efficient than any other service. I continue to list on Ebay.com. Of course it won't work with everyone's situation and margins. 

My prayers are with all small businesses right now. Tough times ahead.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

What annoys me about this, is all postal services (that are not blocking US shipments) are complying by collecting the duty before the item can be shipped. At least they're doing that in Canada, or trying to.

So warning buyers about tariffs when it's delivered is just going to scare off buyers. If the tariffs are collected when the item is shipped and paid by the seller (or included in the sale price which is what I'm going to be doing), then there's no need to scare buyers with warnings of further tariffs upon delivery.

I'm not planning to enroll in EIS because I'm afraid it will hurt my international sales, plus I think some of what I ship can't be sent via EIS anyway.

C.

[mrdutch1001]

My fellow Etsy sellers are adding these countries as "safe to ship to": Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, U.K., Switzerland. 

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

My fellow Etsy sellers are adding these countries as "safe to ship to": Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, U.K., Switzerland. 

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Those are all on my safe list. I also ship to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and UAE.

I'd like to be able to ship to the EU again, but it's generally a headache to deal with. 

C.

[prescilaschina]

@rdemaree I have also lost friends because of their support for Trump. The Christian support for him baffles me. Because of his stance against abortion they consider him godly and moral. I honestly believe they have one brain between the lot of them. I have to be careful what I say because I’ve already been banned from Etsy forums for saying what I really think of him.

[mrdutch1001]

Gotta love the over-eager censorship on Etsy...been there, done that...

I think we Canadian sellers need to remember that DT declared to the world that the USA doesn't need Canada, so let's prove that Canada does not need  the USA!  So let's go Canadian sellers! Let's explore other opportunities; let's find other markets...If/where feasible let's get beyond this dependancy on the USA!

[rdemaree]

I already ship to those countries. I’ll ship literally anywhere. Even the moon! If someone is willing to pay I’ll ship there.

Have shipped to Laos, Thailand, China, Mexico, Brazil and lots of countries most people wouldn’t think to ship to. At the end of the day I’m in business to make money whenever and wherever.

Right now I’m interested in expanding my Canadian and international market as much as possible. I’ll try to retain as many American customers as possible but unfortunately the rhetoric alone has already cost me thousands of dollars no matter how hard I try.

[flipistics]

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@belowthemark wrote:

I still don't understand why the federal government isn't offering any solutions? A subsidized 3PL service that picks and ships, would save thousands of businesses overnight. Wouldn't even be that expensive to operate and tariffs would be paid on the wholesale value.

IMO DYKPost is the best option right now, even for those out of province. I pay tariffs on all my shipments, but the ability to use a domestic USPS label from pirateship or shipsy, is more cost efficient than any other service. I continue to list on Ebay.com. Of course it won't work with everyone's situation and margins. 

My prayers are with all small businesses right now. Tough times ahead.

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Honestly, it would take the government longer to set something up than private companies.  Everyone was caught off-guard on this. None of this was supposed to happen until sometimes in 2026. I feel like some smart company is going to come in and capitalize with an eIS style program.

[thebossorder]

i went and called ebay asking about when they think canada post might be available again and the agent on the phone said quote "you can ask president donald trump" ... so not only do they not know / dont want to inform us, they also give you the most unhinged answer to a question affecting millions of sellers

[rdemaree]

I feel like shipping small business commercial shipments via national post offices from every country into the USA will now be a thing of the past. 

Sellers will have to either use Fed ex/ UPS/ DHL/ Purolator

or find a Chit Chats/ Stallion or equivalent in their region/ country and use that

or use the global/ international shipping program

No matter how you slice this global trade will become a bit more expensive, a bit more slow, and a bit more prohibitive and we will see many businesses not be able to justify staying in the game. Especially casual and hobby sellers.

Many products wont be compatible with the GSP and many products from certain countries (China, India and SOME Canada productss) all at rates of 35-50% + in tariffs just simply won't be worth selling anymore to the USA. 

If CUSMA is axed and the 35% tariffs stay in place it will ruin small business entirely in Canada that relies on ecommerce. Many small businesses will essentially be liquidated due to these tariffs and rules and complications and restrictions. The ones that do survive will have to sell specific items and will have to accept that the USA is no longer a reliable market to count on and need to seek greener pastures.

Personally I am preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. I am preparing for CUSMA to be obliterated entirely and for the 35% tariffs to stay longterm. I don't think this will be the longterm case but I want to be prepared.

I already moved ALL of my listings from .com to .ca months ago and shifted over to calculated shipping from free shipping and from USD to CAD in my pricing stretegies. My next moves are to get my product in physical Canadian stores and to somehow shore up more international sales. I wont ever stop shipping to the USA I am just not going to make it the center of my business model going forward and will focus my growth on Canada and International customers. 

I crave predictability and peace of mind. I think I will just use EIS for USA and Canada Post calculated shipping for everything else. (with chit chats as a backup). This will for sure mean slightly higher shipping prices for Americans and slightly longer shipping times but hey, I have no control over this. I just hope that the EIS program is compareable to Chit Chats prices. I dont mind if its a little bit more expensive and a little bit slower. I just want to streamline my process like how it was pre-trump and cut my losses from the American market, however many drop off due to slightly higher shipping fees and delivery times. I will try and make it up in domestic or overseas markets to the best of my ability.

Overall I can say this- small business GLOBALLY (including the USA) is now permanently fractured and im sure like most things the Walmarts and other big players will be glad to swoop in and monopolize as much as they can. Think about all of the small businesses in the USA who import stuff from Asia to resell or use as raw materials. Their costs are about to skyrocket. 

[movie_galaxy]

I have noticed that if I turn off my listings to Ebay.com and only show them to Canadian buyers on Ebay.ca, my  sales to Canadian buyers will decrease, not increase. If I turn my listings on and show them to American buyers, this will cause my sales to Ebay.ca Canadian customers to actually increase too. You would think it would be the opposite, but it doesn't happen that way.

I am guessing this happens because the algorithm wants all sellers to show their listings to US buyers and if they don't, those listings might get demoted. Don't know this for sure, but that is the pattern I have observed. Maybe Ebay wants it this way because the US is Ebay's biggest market and they want that market served by all sellers on the platform.

So, any Canadian seller who turns off their listings to US buyers because of the tariff issue might also notice a drop in their Canadian sales as well. 

Again, I don't know if other sellers have experienced the same as I have, so take my advice for what you think it is worth.

[cottagewoman]

This should only be shown if the package will be shipped via UPS, FedEx, etc. They are the only DDU options available going forward.

[easoss]

Trump wants CUSMA gone like yesterday (even though he signed it) and I think it'll be eliminated sooner rather than later. This is why I won't sign up for Zonos or ship to the USA. There will be a tariff of some kind on every single item entering the USA regardless of where it was made. You don't want tariffs then move your business south of the border is the logic. 
 
The negotiations will be difficult. What will the tariff be. 10% is the bare minimum but it could be 15,20,25,35,50%. Who knows? And once they are implemented I feel they will never go away no matter who occupies the White House. The era of open commerce is dying in front of us. Protectionism is winning. 

[byto253]

How do you flag a post for a review by ebay?  Is it @ Devon ?

I can understand highliting potential charges to buyers, but that banner is incorrect as it statese

"Due to US policies, import fees for this item will need to be paid to customs or the shipping carrier on delivery." 

The bold is mine, as that is false part as the policy for shipments is for to be prepaid for mail.  That statement should not read "will need to be paid" . At best it should be "may".