Urgent: New U.S. Tariffs and Import Restrictions on Canadian Products — September 8 Update

Don't read the headlines. Read the annexes.

Five proclamations were signed the night of September 8. Two of them adjust who pays a 50% tariff. Three of them ban Canadian goods from entering the United States outright.

The headlines said "dairy, alcohol and motorcycles." The order titles say the same. Neither tells you what is actually on the lists — because the titles describe a grievance with Canada, not the products being hit. I read the annexes. Here's the short version.

The two dates

September 15, 2026 — the 50% duty lists change. Some products come off, some stay on.

September 29, 2026 — three import bans take effect.

Both at 12:01 a.m. Eastern. They run on different clocks, which matters a lot — more on that below.

The law being used

Same as the last round: Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — the authority behind the 50% duties that took effect August 22.

The difference is which half of it is being used. Section 338 allows duties of up to 50%, and it allows the President to exclude a country's goods from importation altogether if the discrimination continues. August was the duty half. September 8 is the exclusion half.

That's the whole story: same statute, second rung.

A tariff is a price. A ban is not.

Worth stating plainly, because every playbook we've built since March 2025 assumes a price.

At 50%, you run the landed-cost math and decide. Under an exclusion, there is no rate, no cheque, no drawback. The goods do not come in. Your spreadsheet doesn't have an answer for it.

CUSMA/USMCA does not help here

This is the question we're getting most, so: no, CUSMA does not exempt you.

Section 338 has no free-trade agreement carve-out. A good can be fully CUSMA-qualifying, with a valid certificate of origin, and still owe the 50% duty — or now, still be barred at the border. Preferential origin sets your duty rate under the agreement. It has no effect on your status under Section 338.

Same lesson as Canada's September 8 counter-tariffs, in the other direction: CUSMA removes the duty, not the measure sitting on top of it.

What's actually taxed or banned in each

Banned as of September 29:

• "Motor vehicles" — one tariff line. 8711.50.00: motorcycles and mopeds over 800 cc. No cars, no trucks, no parts. Big bikes only.
• "Dairy" — 14 lines, almost none of it dairy. Eight lines of whey (protein concentrates, modified, fluid, dried), five lines of molasses, and one line of non-alcoholic beer. No milk, no butter, no cream, no cheese.
• "Alcoholic beverages" — 53 lines, and this one is as broad as it sounds. Beer, wine in every size and strength, cider, sake, vermouth, and effectively all spirits: whisky, vodka, gin, rum, brandy, tequila, liqueurs, bitters. Two exceptions — bulk "other" whiskies and bulk liqueurs in containers over 4 litres came off the duty list and never made the ban list.

Changing on September 15:

Still at 50% — writing and graphic papers, aluminum profiles and tube, structural steel shapes, base-metal fasteners, a long run of furniture and seating, mattresses, lamps, golf carts, outboard motorboats, plus cheeses, hides and leather, and furskins.

Coming off the 50% duty — salt, Portland cement, chemically pure sugars, facial and toilet tissue stock, paper bed sheets, refined lead, switchgear under 1,000 volts, and fishing rod parts.

Note where those sit. The alcohol order keeps a tariff on cheese and furskins. The auto order keeps one on mattresses and facial tissue. There's no logic to reverse-engineer. Match your own numbers to the annexes.

The timing trap

September 15 applies to goods entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse. That's the entry clock — it starts when you file.

September 29 applies to goods imported on or after that time. That's the arrival clock — it starts when the goods physically reach the U.S.

And the arrival clock comes with relief almost nobody has reported: goods that arrive before September 29 but haven't been entered yet still get in. They pay the 50% duty instead of being blocked.

So if your banned-list freight physically lands in the U.S. before 12:01 a.m. on September 29, you can still clear it afterwards at 50%. If it lands at 12:02, it doesn't clear at any price. Goods already in a U.S. bonded warehouse are on the right side of the line.

Whey, molasses, non-alcoholic beer, alcohol, large motorcycles — that window closes in under three weeks.

One more thing: each ban carries a severability clause. If a court strikes down a ban, the 50% duty snaps back automatically. A win in court gets you to 50%, not to zero.

Check your tariff items

Tariff Impact Checker — screen your southbound HTS codes against active Section 301, 232 and 338 measures, so you see exactly where your exposure sits. First ten codes free, no account needed.

HTS Tariff Classification (USA) — confirm any code the checker flags before you rely on it. Everything downstream depends on the code being right.

We're working diligently to get the September 8 measures loaded into the checker — hopefully within the next 24 to 48 hours. Until then, the annex links below are the authoritative lists.

Then do this:

1. Pull your 10-digit U.S. HTS numbers. Not descriptions, not categories. Numbers.
2. Match them to the three ban annexes. A number one line away is unaffected — the lists are too arbitrary to guess at.
3. If you have a hit, check arrival dates, not entry dates.
4. Check the September 15 lists separately. Some of you are about to stop paying 50% on salt, cement, tissue stock or lead, and nobody sends a notice for a rate that quietly changed.
5. Watch for CBP guidance. Each order lets Customs and Border Protection correct the annexes by Federal Register notice, so today's lists aren't necessarily final.

Nine weeks into Section 338, the pattern hasn't changed: the announcement is loud, the annex is quiet, and the annex is the part that bills you.

To have your southbound HTS codes screened against the September 8 annexes before the deadlines, talk to our team.

Get an Online Quote · Schedule a Call · 1-888-538-5658

The source documents

Additional duties — motor vehicles (September 15) Order · Annex I · Annex II

Additional duties — alcoholic beverages (September 15) Order · Annex I · Annex II

Excluded from importation — alcoholic beverages (September 29) Order · Annex

Excluded from importation — dairy (September 29) Order · Annex

Excluded from importation — motor vehicles (September 29) Order · Annex

Product lists and line counts taken directly from the annexes on September 9, 2026. CBP can amend the annexes by Federal Register notice — verify against the current published list before acting.