Issue 021 · Week of August 31, 2026
The tariff lines are published: 15, 25 and 50 per cent on $27.6 billion of US goods from September 8 — and in-transit shipments are exempt
Issue 20 closed by asking whether a date without a rate was plannable. Finance Canada answered the same morning, at the tariff-item level. One document is still missing — and it’s CBSA’s.
Update — overtaken, in your favour: Issue 20 said you had the date and the sectors but not the tariff lines, and might wait two weeks for them. The wait lasted about two hours — Finance Canada published the countermeasures release the same Tuesday morning, August 25. Two records to update: the figure of record is $27.6 billion, Finance’s number, superseding the roughly $28 billion we carried from PMO remarks; and the US duties’ effective date of record is August 22, now documented on both sides — by Finance and by Proclamation 11056, 91 FR 54789.
§ 1 — The Dashboard
Canadian counter-tariffs — Tariff-item product list published August 25, updated August 26: $27.6 billion of US goods at 15, 25 and 50%, in force 12:01 a.m. September 8; goods in transit that day exempt (Finance Canada)
Exposure is now readable line by line.
US Section 338 duties, 50% — In force since August 22 per Proclamation 11056, 91 FR 54789; scope alcohol, dairy, motor vehicles (Federal Register)
The US instrument is finally citable.
USDCAD (as of Friday’s close, August 28) — 1.3888, from 1.3842 Monday August 24 — 0.33% weaker (BoC daily rates)
The landed-cost stack starts here.
Bank of Canada policy rate — 2.25%; next fixed announcement September 2 (Bank of Canada)
Lands the day after this issue.
CBSA enforcement watch — No administration notice for the September 8 counter-tariffs as of Sunday, August 30; index current to CN 26-21, August 25 (CBSA notices index)
Lines public, mechanics pending.
StatCan (Q2, August 28 release) — GDP +0.8%; exports +3.6%, largest rise since Q1 2023; current account +$8.8B surplus (StatCan, The Daily)
Closed before the rupture.
CITT safeguards — GC-2025-001 (vegetable goods) reports September 9; GC-2026-001 (wood goods) hearings October 1–9 (CITT)
Three federal dates in eight days: September 2, 8, 9.
§ 2 — The Briefing
The list arrived, itemized, fourteen days before the duties
If you closed last week holding Issue 20’s question — pull forward, bond, or wait for the list — the list arrived Tuesday morning. On August 25, Finance Canada announced counter-tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 per cent on $27.6 billion of US goods, each product’s rate matching the corresponding US rate, effective 12:01 a.m. September 8.
The companion backgrounder carries the product list at the tariff-item level. You can now read your own exposure line by line. What you cannot yet read is how CBSA will collect it.
§ 3 — The Connection
The dairy rows land exactly on CBSA’s bonded-warehouse trap
Finance Canada’s product list splits dairy into within-access and over-access tariff items — milk powders and whey at 50 per cent, cheese at 25, the same surtax rate on both TRQ tiers. CBSA’s Customs Notice 26-20, published four days earlier on August 21, governs TRQ goods in a customs bonded warehouse: the Global Affairs shipment-specific permit must cover the date the goods exit, and a permit that expires in storage converts the entry to over-access, with penalties available. Neither document cites the other.
An importer who took Issue 20’s bond-and-wait option on US dairy now faces both at once: exit crosses a surtax that did not exist at entry, and the tier depends on a permit being alive that day.
The third document is missing. The list defers administration — surtax code, accounting fields, in-transit evidencing — to CBSA customs notices; as of Sunday, August 30, none has been published.
§ 4 — The Numbers
On a US$150,000 order, the ship date now moves C$52,080 — the week’s currency move is a rounding term
Take a US$150,000 order of US-origin cheese on the list. At Friday’s close of 1.3888 that is about C$208,320. From September 8, if it is not in transit to Canada that day, the 25 per cent surtax adds about C$52,080.
The week’s currency move is the rounding term this time: the rate moved from 1.3842 Monday to 1.3888 Friday, a 0.33 per cent weaker CAD, worth about C$690 on the same order — the duty term is roughly 75 times that, and it rides on the ship date.
Two dates now do the pricing work. Goods in transit on September 8 are exempt, so for anything with a multi-week transit, this week’s ship date decides which side of that C$52,080 the shipment lands on. And for bonded TRQ goods, 26-20 makes permit-at-exit the difference between the within-access and over-access tier. Swap in your own volumes; the structure is the point.
§ 5 — The Action
Run your purchase file against the list
This week: match open US purchase orders against the product list — under two hours.
(a) Pull the tariff-item list and match every open US-origin order against it, using the Customs Tariff schedule where you classify only to six digits.
(b) For each match, note expected arrival: goods not in transit to Canada by September 8 carry the listed surtax; flag orders where this week’s ship date moves them across that line.
If you export to the US: the proclaimed instrument covers alcohol, dairy and motor vehicles only — the July triad (91 FR 54789).
§ 6 — The Broader Picture
The other column of the same spreadsheet: $7.5 billion, sized for SMEs
The same August 25 announcement carries a $7.5 billion support package, scaled to this readership: the Regional Tariff Response Initiative’s non-repayable cap triples to $3 million, with liquidity support to $2 million; BDC’s new Pivot to Grow stream lends $250,000 to $5 million, interest-only for 36 months, with the revenue floor dropped to $1 million; and a $2 billion Canada Strong Diversification Fund opens immediately.
One caveat from the same department: the tariff remission process page itself has not changed since June 19 and does not name the September 8 tranche — though the product list it links to was updated August 26 and is designated the authoritative source for tariff items, effective dates and rates.
§ 7 — The Question
Are your lines on it?
The list is public. Reply with two things: whether your tariff items are on it — which chapter — and whether the in-transit exemption changes an order you were holding open. The list can tell you the rate, not where the September 8 exposure sits — that is what I am mapping.
A note on framing: Fully Briefed synthesizes publicly available government source material and translates it into financial terms. This is education, not legal, customs, or tax advice. Nothing here interprets whether a specific product falls under a listed tariff item or a tariff rate quota, or determines how your permits and declarations should be filed — the Customs Tariff schedule, Customs Notice 26-20 and the coming CBSA administration notice govern, and your customs broker works the inputs.
Trevor Ryhorchuk, CPA, CIA, PMP
Fully Briefed — Canadian Trade Intelligence
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