Most goods made in Canada enter the United States duty-free, because Canada, the US and Mexico share a free trade agreement. Under USMCA, a Canadian-origin good that meets the rules of origin pays zero duty, and that covers a large share of cross-border trade. What breaks the zero is not the country, it is two things that sit outside the agreement: metal content and trade remedies. Steel, aluminum and copper articles owe Section 232 duties on their full value regardless of USMCA, and softwood lumber owes antidumping and countervailing duties that a trade agreement does not touch. Get those two exceptions straight and the Canadian duty picture is simpler than most.
This article is built around the durable structure. There has also been a volatile 2026 policy layer, and it is genuinely unsettled as this is written, so it gets its own section with dates and a warning rather than a number you should trust for long.
How Canadian goods enter duty-free under USMCA
USMCA replaced NAFTA in 2020, and for qualifying goods the duty is zero. Qualifying is the whole game. A good meets the rules of origin if it is wholly obtained or produced in the USMCA region, if it satisfies a tariff-shift rule (its non-originating inputs change tariff classification through processing in the region), or if it meets a regional value content threshold calculated by the transaction-value or net-cost method.
There is no government form. You certify origin with nine required data elements: the certifier and their status, the exporter, producer and importer details, a description and the six-digit HTS subheading of the goods, the origin criterion, a blanket period if used, and an authorized signature and date, plus the certification statement from Annex 5-A. The certification can live on the commercial invoice or any other document. Miss an element and CBP has grounds to deny the preference, so the paperwork discipline is the difference between paying zero and paying the full rate. Goods that do not qualify simply pay the Column 1 General rate for their HTS code, the same rate any non-agreement country would pay.
Section 232 applies to steel and aluminum regardless of USMCA
Canada is one of the largest suppliers of steel and aluminum to the US, and this is where importers get surprised. Canada's exemption from the Section 232 metals tariffs ended in March 2025 and has not come back. Since a restructuring effective April 6, 2026, the duty applies to the full customs value of a covered article, not just its metal content as under the older rule.
| Article type | Section 232 treatment (2026) |
|---|---|
| Wholly or almost wholly steel, aluminum or copper | 50% on full customs value |
| Covered derivative, substantially the metal | 25% on full customs value |
| Certain ag equipment and residential HVAC derivatives | 15% transitional rate through Dec 31, 2027 |
| Derivative with 15% or less covered-metal content | No Section 232 duty |
The key point for anyone importing from Canada: this is triggered by metal content, not by country of preference. A USMCA-qualifying steel product from Canada still owes the Section 232 duty. The metals action and the trade agreement run on separate tracks, and the agreement does not shield the metal. This is different from vehicles, where USMCA-qualifying cars do get the zero rate under the separate autos action. If you import machinery with steel or aluminum sub-assemblies, check the derivative lists against your codes before assuming you are clear, the same analysis that applies to any Chapter 84 machinery import.
Softwood lumber carries a separate duty that USMCA does not reduce
Canadian softwood lumber is the other long-standing exception. It is subject to antidumping and countervailing duty orders that have nothing to do with the general tariff and everything to do with a decades-old dispute over pricing and provincial stumpage subsidies. The combined AD and CVD rate has recently sat around 35 percent. A Commerce administrative review has preliminarily proposed cutting it to roughly 24.83 percent, with final results expected later in 2026, but a separate 10 percent Section 232 tariff on softwood timber and lumber has applied since October 2025, so the total burden stays high even if the AD/CVD rate comes down. USMCA preference does not override AD/CVD orders, which is why importers still pay substantial duty on Canadian lumber despite the free trade agreement.
The 2026 policy layer on Canadian goods that miss USMCA
In early 2025 the administration imposed emergency-powers tariffs on Canada, including a general 25 percent rate on non-USMCA-compliant goods with a reduced 10 percent on energy and potash. That entire authority was struck down. On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs, and CBP stopped collecting those duties for entries from February 24, 2026. Any reference you find to a flat 25 percent Canada tariff is now stale.
It was immediately replaced by a temporary 10 percent surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, effective February 24, 2026, which stacked on the MFN rate but exempted USMCA-qualifying goods. That surcharge is now gone: Section 122 carries a hard 150-day statutory limit, Congress did not extend it, and it lapsed by operation of law at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on July 24, 2026. At that same moment USTR's final action in its Section 301 forced-labor investigations took effect, covering roughly 60 economies with no automatic expiry. Canada sits in the 10 percent tier, but the exemption that matters is broader than the rate: products of Canada and Mexico that qualify under USMCA are exempt outright, and goods already subject to Section 232 are outside the action's scope altogether.
So the honest position for a Canadian shipment arriving now: if it qualifies under USMCA, its base duty is zero and it is exempt from the forced-labor action as well, which makes a valid origin claim worth more than it has been in years. The exposure that survives all of this is the durable stuff, Section 232 on metals and AD/CVD on lumber. For non-qualifying goods, the 10 percent tier applies unless your subheading appears in the annex exclusions, so check the notice and CBP's CSMS guidance for your entry date.
Classifying a Canadian supplier's catalog for USMCA
On the Canada lane the HTS code does a second job. USMCA rules of origin are product-specific and written against the tariff classification, so the code tells you which tariff shift or regional value content test a product has to pass. Classify a part into the wrong heading and you test it against the wrong rule, claim zero duty you are not entitled to, and lose the exemption from the 10 percent layer on the same entry. A distributor taking on a Canadian brand typically has 50 to 500 SKUs to sort into qualifying and non-qualifying before the first order, and the table below is what that classification step costs by route.
| Catalog | Broker review at $50 to $200 each | TariffWise |
|---|---|---|
| 40 products from one Canadian manufacturer | $2,000 to $8,000 | Starter, $59 for the month |
| 500 lines across several Canadian suppliers | $25,000 to $100,000 | Growth, $199 for the month, one CSV run |
| A distributor re-checking thousands of Canadian and Mexican lines | Rarely quoted per line | Business, $499 a month |
Each row comes back with the 10-digit code, the reasoning and the duty with and without a valid USMCA claim, so you can see which products are worth the origin paperwork and which are exposed to Section 232 or the 10 percent layer. Plans are on the HS code classification pricing page, and the same check for the southern border is in the import duty from Mexico guide.
A worked example
Take a Canadian-made industrial machine, invoice value 120,000 dollars, that meets USMCA rules of origin and carries a valid nine-element certification on the commercial invoice. Base duty: zero. The merchandise processing fee still applies at 0.3464 percent, which lands at 416 dollars, under the per-entry ceiling. If it came by sea rather than by truck it would also owe the harbor maintenance fee at 0.125 percent. Now the question that decides the real number: does the machine contain enough covered steel or aluminum to appear on a Section 232 derivative list? If yes, a metals duty applies on the full 120,000 dollars even though the machine itself is USMCA-qualifying, and that single answer can swing the total by tens of thousands of dollars. If no, the machine lands essentially at the fee floor. That is why the classification and the bill of materials have to be right before the arithmetic means anything. Pin the code on the live classifier and build the layers in the import duty calculator.
Practical steps for importing from Canada
Certify origin properly. The nine data elements are not optional, and a missing element is the most common reason a preference claim is denied. Classify precisely, because both the USMCA rules of origin and the Section 232 derivative lists key off the HTS code. Check the metals exposure explicitly rather than assuming a trade agreement covers it; the metal is on its own track. Budget for the fee layer even on duty-free goods, since MPF and, on ocean shipments, HMF still apply. And for companies moving steady cross-border volume, it pays to connect the customs broker, ERP and accounting systems so entry and origin data flow through automatically instead of being retyped, which is exactly where certification errors creep in.
For the fee mechanics, see the merchandise processing fee. For the same lane analysis on a partner without a comprehensive agreement, compare import duty from Germany, and for the other USMCA member, import duty from Mexico. If your classification is contestable and you import the same product repeatedly, a binding ruling from CBP locks down the one variable you can actually control.
Frequently asked questions
Does USMCA make all Canadian imports duty-free?
No. Only goods that meet USMCA rules of origin, through being wholly obtained, meeting a tariff shift, or hitting a regional value content threshold, with a valid nine-element certification, qualify for zero duty. Non-qualifying goods pay the Column 1 MFN rate for their HTS code, and goods under separate trade remedies such as softwood lumber AD/CVD still owe those duties regardless of Canadian origin.
Do Canadian steel and aluminum products get a USMCA exemption from tariffs?
No. Canada's Section 232 exemption ended in March 2025. Since April 2026 the metals duties apply to the full customs value, at 50 percent for articles that are wholly the metal and 25 percent for covered derivatives, based on metal content rather than USMCA origin. So a USMCA-qualifying steel or aluminum product from Canada is not shielded from these duties, even though the same rules give qualifying vehicles a zero rate.
Are the 2025 Canada-specific tariffs still in effect?
No. The 2025 emergency-powers tariffs on Canada, the 25 percent general rate and the 10 percent energy and potash rate, were struck down when the Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that the law they relied on does not authorize tariffs, and collection stopped that month. They were briefly succeeded by a global 10 percent surcharge, which itself expired by statute on July 24, 2026. What applies now is a Section 301 forced-labor action at 10 percent for Canada, from which USMCA-qualifying goods are exempt. Confirm current status before relying on any figure.
Why do I still pay duty on Canadian softwood lumber if USMCA covers Canada?
Softwood lumber duties come from separate antidumping and countervailing duty orders that address pricing and subsidy findings, not from a general tariff, so USMCA preference does not override them. The combined AD and CVD rate has recently sat around 35 percent, with a review proposing roughly 24.83 percent, plus a separate 10 percent Section 232 tariff on lumber that has applied since October 2025.