Ordering Clothes From US Sites After Canada's September 2026 Counter-Tariffs: Duty, Tax and the $40/$150 Rules

A US checkout can show a low clothing price and still be the expensive way to buy. Since 8 September 2026, certain goods that originate in the United States can owe a surtax of 15, 25 or 50 percent of the value for duty, on top of ordinary duty and tax rules. This page is the apparel version of that bill. Household goods that are not clothes stay on the household counter-tariffs guide. Nothing here is a ruling. Confirm a shipment with the CBSA Border Information Service at 1-800-461-9999, or with your carrier, before you treat a checkout total as the landed cost.

What changed on 8 September 2026 and which apparel lines are on the 50% list

Customs Notice 26-23, dated 7 September 2026, says that from 8 September 2026 certain goods imported into Canada and originating in the United States are subject to a surtax of 15, 25 or 50 percent of the value for duty, depending on the schedule. The Order is SOR/2026-186, registration 2026-09-04, P.C. 2026-785. Checked on the Justice Laws site 29 Sep 2026, the consolidation says it is current to 2026-09-21 and last amended on 2026-09-08. The CBSA customs-notice list, checked the same day, still titles Customs Notice 26-23 as the United States Surtax Order (2026) notice. Customs Notice 26-24, updated 2026-09-14, is about a Partners in Protection exemption for some air carriers in the courier low-value program. Customs Notice 26-22, revised 2026-09-16, is a United Kingdom tariff-consolidation note. Neither title amends the clothing lines below. The Department of Finance product list, issued 25 August 2026, prints the same apparel codes with a 50 beside them, and its own page says the list may no longer reflect current measures. Use the Order as the list.

Apparel on that 50 percent schedule is a set of tariff items, not a category called "clothing." Schedule 3 of the Order, read 29 Sep 2026, includes the knitted and woven lines in the table. It does not include Chapter 64 footwear, swimwear under 6211.11 or 6211.12, or ski suits under 6211.20. No apparel line from chapters 61 or 62 appeared on the 15 percent or 25 percent schedules in that read. Which line a parcel actually takes depends on classification: check with CBSA. A cotton T-shirt is not automatically 6109.10.00 because the website calls it a T-shirt.

Under the US tariff treatment, those apparel lines print as Free. That is why a US-made item on the list typically pays the surtax and no regular duty, while a non-US-made item shipped from the United States pays no surtax and may pay most-favoured-nation duty once it is above the courier threshold. Whether a specific item qualifies for that US tariff treatment is a question for CBSA. Customs Notice 26-23, Example 2, is the CBSA's own arithmetic, not one of our examples: value for duty $150, most-favoured-nation duty 0 percent, surtax 50 percent, so surtax $75, value for tax $225, GST $11.25, and surtax plus GST $86.25.

Mail vs courier: the $20, $40 and $150 low-value thresholds explained

The low-value bands are Canadian dollars of value for duty. The CBSA low-value shipment page, modified 2025-11-25 and checked 29 Sep 2026, and Memorandum D8-2-16, Ottawa, 15 November 2024, say the same thing in slightly different words. By mail, $20 and under is duty- and tax-free from any country. Above $20, duties and taxes apply, including from the United States and Mexico. By courier from the United States or Mexico, up to $40 is duty- and tax-free, above $40 to $150 is duty-free but taxes apply, and above $150 duties and taxes apply. By courier from any other country, up to $20 is duty- and tax-free and above $20 duties and taxes apply. A courier, on that page, is a commercial carrier in scheduled international transport of goods other than mail.

The higher courier band does not require the goods to originate in a CUSMA country. They must be shipped from the United States or Mexico, and they must have entered that country's commerce first. Goods only transshipped through the United States do not get the higher band. Memorandum D8-2-16, paragraph 12, also says goods manufactured in the United States and shipped from another country other than Mexico take the lower threshold. Paragraph 8 says you cannot split one order into several packages to duck under the line. Paragraph 9 says that once the value for duty exceeds the threshold, duty applies to the entire value, not only the amount over the line. Some goods are outside the remission entirely, including alcohol, cannabis, tobacco and certain publications. The $40 and $150 figures are not surtax exemptions. Customs Notice 26-23, paragraph 9, says the surtax applies to US-origin goods including those eligible for remission of customs duties and sales or excise taxes under the postal or courier remission orders, and that surtax applies on shipments under the de minimis thresholds. Paragraph 29 says such goods must be accounted for. Paragraph 17 says GST is calculated on the value for tax, which includes the surtax even when customs duties are remitted, and that GST is not payable on non-taxable importations even if the importation is subject to the surtax.

Made in vs shipped from: why origin decides the surtax, not the checkout currency

A price in US dollars, a ".com" address, and a warehouse in New Jersey are not the test. Customs Notice 26-23, paragraphs 5 and 6, says the surtax applies only to goods that originate in the United States, meaning goods eligible to be marked as goods of the United States, and that it can apply even when the goods are exported from a country other than the United States. For personal importations, paragraphs 14 and 15 say the goods count as US-origin when they are marked as a good of the United States, including when they are imported from another country and marked as made in, produced in, or originating in the United States. Goods made elsewhere are not subject to the surtax. An Asia-made jacket that ships from a US warehouse is the usual case: no surtax, and the ordinary mail or courier rules still apply. Goods marked as originating in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa or the US Virgin Islands are excluded.

Read the origin mark on the garment or the product page before you compare a Canadian shelf price. If the page does not state where it was made, you do not yet know whether the 50 percent line can apply. Currency conversion is a separate cost. It is not origin. A cash-back portal, if you use one, tracks a purchase. It does not reduce value for duty.

Brokerage fees, 'duties paid' checkouts and how to see the landed cost first

Write the landed cost down before you pay the store. Start with value for duty, which is not always the number on the screen once shipping and the seller's discounts are in the price. Then ask three questions. Do the goods originate in the United States, in the marking sense above? Is the tariff line one of the lines in the table, which is a classification question for CBSA if you are unsure? Which band applies: mail, courier from the United States or Mexico after the goods entered that country's commerce, or courier from somewhere else, including a transshipment that never entered US commerce?

A "duties paid" or "taxes included" badge is the retailer's sentence, not a CBSA assessment. Read the checkout lines. If the badge does not say whether surtax is inside it, do not assume the 50 percent is prepaid. This guide does not cover how any carrier bills the surtax, whether a brokerage or handling fee is added, or how that fee shows up at checkout or at the door. Check with CBSA at 1-800-461-9999 or your carrier, and open the carrier's fee page before you accept the shipment. Do not use a dollar figure from a forum as a brokerage rate. Travellers who bring goods home in personal baggage are a different set of rules. Customs Notice 26-23, paragraph 23, points to CBSA's Guide for residents returning to Canada. Use that guide. The cross-border trip guide is the household version of the drive, not a duty calculator for a coat in a suitcase.

Worked examples: a $35 top, a $120 jacket and a $300 coat

Example with made-up inputs. The three values for duty are $35, $120 and $300 so the arithmetic is visible. They are not shelf prices, averages, or quotes. Provincial sales tax is left out. GST is 5 percent, the rate in Customs Notice 26-23's examples, applied to value for duty plus surtax plus customs duty. The $35 row sits in the courier band that is duty- and tax-free, so its GST is $0: paragraph 17 of the notice says GST is not payable on a non-taxable importation even if surtax applies. The surtax on that row still applies. The chart is the paragraph 17 method, not a prediction of the slip at the door. Check with CBSA or your carrier.

When to buy in Canada instead and how to return a cross-border order

Compare the Canadian price with the landed stack, not with the US sticker. On a listed US-made line the surtax alone is half the value for duty before GST. A coat that looks cheaper on a US site can lose that gap once $150 of surtax is in the comparison, as in the made-up $300 row. This page does not say Canadian retailers absorb the surtax, and it does not give the surtax an end date. Neither point was on the pages used here. If you buy in Canada, use the price-adjustment guide for what a later sale does to a receipt you already hold, and the return-policy guide before you assume a change-of-mind right. A winter coat's fit and timing are on the coat guide.

A store refund is not automatically a refund of surtax or duty. Customs Notice 26-23 says an adjustment for casual goods uses Form B2G and cannot be sent through CARM, and it points to Memorandum D6-2-6. That is the notice's instruction, not a promise about timing. Check with CBSA before you count on getting the border charges back because the retailer accepted the return. Read the seller's return window, who pays return postage, and whether "final sale" survives the border, before you order.