Tariffs.... Selling from Canada to the USA - Used items?

[choppsshopjg]

I sell used car parts - 95% of my shipments go to the USA from Canada. Will my customers have to pay extra? Somewhere? Shipping used items from Canada to the USA - will they be exempt from Tariffs?

[dinomitesales]

Specifics are still vague at this point.

But I highly doubt that there will be any difference between "used" and "new" when it comes down to the application of tariffs. It's just a blanket statement of "goods" and "articles from Canada". What will likely be more important is the country of origin of the item you're sending to the States.

Is your item manufactured in Canada (or Mexico or China, presumably)? Then yes, it is almost a certainty that the buyer will have to pay an additional 25% tariff on it, regardless of whether it's used or new.

Is the item manufactured in the United States or another country? Then there's a chance it might pass through tariff-free if it's declared correctly on the customs form, but no one knows the official answer right now. It's too early.

[byto253]

Dang, that is a very good and what should be an obvious point!  Glad I sold a whack of Canadian metal LPs over the last few months.  Other than that most of my items are not made in Canada and most have the country of origin marked on them.

I have crossed the border to do shipping a few times and the form I filled in required country of origin.  That is not something I have filled in shipping from Canada.  I would hope that shipper's like chitchats that are in touch with the US border folks will discuss this and have the form ready in the event that country of origin.   It is something that Canada Post will need to address as well.

[carlmarxx]

The Tariff's  will not last long  ,Since  Trumptards  supporters  in the red states  will be getting screwed over  ,while  it will not  hurt those of us in the Blue states  .  That being said  both sentators and Congress  will not  risk their  seats  .  The Mid terms are comming up  and Republican seats are  up  for flipping to blue .

[recped]

Not going to affect blue states like California?

The price of energy, lumber, fertilizer, cement, vehicles, raw materials for EV batteries will go up if the tarrifs are in place for an extended period of time. Don't you need some of that stuff in Cali?

[carlmarxx]

 What I was getting at that red states  will  being getting harder first ,  before us in califiornia and the other  blue states 

[goodgamescanada]

https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/president-trump-imposes-25-tariffs-canada-and-mexico-and-10-...

All items except energy. So i believe it is covered,

[msau4301]

I thought the labels automatically default to show country of original as Canada if they are being shipped from Canada. Origin sounds like where they are being mailed/shipped from. Shouldn't it ask where they were made/manufactured if that is the criteria. Sometimes with used items (that may no longer have original label/markings) and mixed lots which could have a mix of manufactured places which would make it more tricky. If sender didn't have that information filled out would customs then just assume it's origin was country of shipping? I can't see them looking all over items for country markings.

Apparently there's another meeting with Trump, Trudeau and Mexico this morning, let's see if we get any more info. Maybe we get more info, though I won't hold my breath. I

sent 5 items to the US Thursday last week, 4 have already past through customs, one is even out for delivery (I feel that's even faster than usual). I'm holding off re-listing for now.

[flipistics]

---

@msau4301 wrote:

I thought the labels automatically default to show country of original as Canada if they are being shipped from Canada. Origin sounds like where they are being mailed/shipped from. Shouldn't it ask where they were made/manufactured if that is the criteria. Sometimes with used items (that may no longer have original label/markings) and mixed lots which could have a mix of manufactured places which would make it more tricky. If sender didn't have that information filled out would customs then just assume it's origin was country of shipping? I can't see them looking all over items for country markings.

Apparently there's another meeting with Trump, Trudeau and Mexico this morning, let's see if we get any more info. Maybe we get more info, though I won't hold my breath. I

sent 5 items to the US Thursday last week, 4 have already past through customs, one is even out for delivery (I feel that's even faster than usual). I'm holding off re-listing for now.

---

Country of origin is where the item was made. Where it is shipped from should be irrelevant (but who knows with Trump). Otherwise, tariffs would be useless. Affected countries would simply ship the items to another country unaffected by the tariffs and forward them on from there.

eBay's labels DID modify everything to Canada for the country or origin for quite some time. It was a mistake on eBay's part.

[dinomitesales]

---

@msau4301 wrote:

I thought the labels automatically default to show country of original as Canada if they are being shipped from Canada. Origin sounds like where they are being mailed/shipped from. Shouldn't it ask where they were made/manufactured if that is the criteria. Sometimes with used items (that may no longer have original label/markings) and mixed lots which could have a mix of manufactured places which would make it more tricky. If sender didn't have that information filled out would customs then just assume it's origin was country of shipping? I can't see them looking all over items for country markings.

---

"Country of Origin" is the country of manufacture of the item - it would be a useless inclusion on a customs declaration if it was for the "country being shipped from" since that information is pretty obvious based on the sender's address (and the origination point of the shipping label as a whole). Country of Origin has historically been the primary factor in assessing duties on products, including here in Canada.

Country of Origin (and HS codes) should always be included on a customs declaration. Unfortunately, Canada Post (and many online label creation platforms) do not require this information to complete the label, and this is going to cause a lot of issues at the border if this all continues. If there is no country of origin specified then it's safe to say that any customs authority would just assume the country of origin is the country it's coming from.

[byto253]

Just spoke to a CP Shopper's manager and if you go to the counter they do put in country of origin but they just enter Canada, which is incorrect if made elsewhere - with the $800 limit it was not an issue before.

[dinomitesales]

---

@byto253 wrote:

Just spoke to a CP Shopper's manager and if you go to the counter they do put in country of origin but they just enter Canada, which is incorrect if made elsewhere - with the $800 limit it was not an issue before.

---

Okay, so here's how that works at the counter.

When the clerk is filling in the customs portion of the shipping label there has always been the option to add all details including country of origin and HS code if they customer requests. If your knowledgeable, and printing your postage at the counter ("stamps on the box" folks, for example) then just ask the clerk to add in the country of origin and HS code and they can do that for you.

Even though it's always been an option to add, it has never been a requirement that the country of origin and HS code be included when the clerk fills out the form. The only required information was the sender/recipients full address, a description of the item, and the value in Canadian dollars. This is the information that was transmitted to the destination country electronically via what's referred to as "Advanced Electronic Data" (or EAD if you want to Google it). There was a glitch with a recent software update a few months back on Canada Post's computers where it was requiring a country of origin to be specified (Canada Post's instructions to post offices were to just change it to "Canada" if the customer didn't know where it was made), but that has since been fixed and it's no longer required to enter a country of origin. To clarify: when the clerk is entering the country of origin on the customs declaration, they are given a drop-down menu with every country on Earth. They do not have to enter "Canada".

Canada Post is probably freaking out right now because if these new tariffs are going to be enforced in the way we think they are (by country of origin) then they're going to have to scramble to update their software and also train clerks on how to properly fill out a customs declaration to include country of origin and HS code (the latter part is going to be especially tough because there is currently NO HS Code lookup implementation in Canada Post's retail software, and if I had to guess, I'd say 90% of clerks working at Canada Post post offices have no idea what an HS code even is).

[byto253]

Chitchats has an option for users to add Country of Origin that users need to set up in their presets.   Canada Post needs to add something like that to the online customs form so that it does not have to be a bottleneck for the clerks.