Canada’s counter-tariffs on $27.6 billion of American goods take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET. Tuesday. As of Monday, the border agency had not published the guidance importers need to apply them, and the legal order behind them had not appeared in the Canada Gazette.
The measure itself is not in doubt. Finance Canada announced it on Aug. 25, in response to U.S. tariffs of 50 per cent imposed on Canadian goods on Aug. 22, and published the product list the next day. The surtaxes run at 15, 25 and 50 per cent, matching the U.S. rate on the same goods, and cover items across roughly a dozen tariff chapters — dairy, wood, paper and textiles largely at 25 per cent; steel, cosmetics, apparel and plastics at 50. Goods already in transit to Canada when the tariffs come into force are exempt.
What is missing
The Canada Border Services Agency’s own notice tells the story. Its customs-notice page carries a banner reading “Starting September 8, 2026: Surtaxes (counter tariffs) on certain U.S. goods” and promises that “the CBSA will publish guidance for importers on how the surtaxes apply at the border.” As of Monday afternoon that guidance had not been posted — the most recent customs notice was still dated Sept. 1, on an unrelated matter.
The order that imposes the surtaxes had also not been gazetted. The most recent issue of the Canada Gazette Part II is from Aug. 26; the next regular issue is Sept. 9, the day after the tariffs start. Orders of this kind are made under the Customs Tariff and typically appear shortly after they take effect, but until one is published, importers are working from the Finance Canada announcement rather than the instrument itself.
What a Toronto importer has to do Tuesday
Based on how Ottawa handled the 2025 round of counter-tariffs, an importer clearing an affected U.S. good will have to declare the surtax on the Commercial Accounting Declaration in the CARM portal, using a surtax code that the forthcoming customs notice is expected to specify, and confirm the good’s U.S. origin under Canada’s marking rules. The surtax applies on top of any regular duty. Businesses that use affected U.S. inputs may be able to recover costs through the Duties Relief or Duty Drawback programs, or apply to Finance Canada for remission where an input cannot reasonably be sourced outside the United States; remission requests go to [email protected].
Travellers are treated differently: surtaxes do not apply to goods that qualify for a personal exemption, so a shopper coming back over the border within the normal limits is not affected, while goods above the exemption are.
The one thing the government has not yet given importers is the paperwork. That is the piece to watch for Tuesday morning.
Source: List of products from the United States subject to counter-tariffs effective September 8, 2026, Finance Canada, Aug. 26, 2026.
