At 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Washington drops rock salt, cement, toilet tissue and refined lead from its 50 per cent Section 338 tariff on Canadian goods and adds furniture, paper, aluminum products, all-terrain vehicles, motorboats and more cheese. Two weeks later the first outright U.S. import ban on Canadian products since the 1940s takes hold. Here is what exporters, brokers and distillers need to know before the deadlines hit.
Toronto, September 13, 2026 | Peacock Tariff Consulting Canada Trade Desk
Canadian exporters face the first of two hard American deadlines this week, as the scope of the 50 per cent Section 338 tariffs the United States imposed on Canadian goods on August 22 is rewritten at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, September 15. The modification, signed by President Donald Trump on September 8 in direct response to Canada’s C$27.6 billion counter-tariff package, removes a handful of bulk industrial commodities from the tariff list and replaces them with consumer and manufactured goods that reach American retail shelves and dealership lots far more directly. Fourteen days after that, on September 29, a separate set of proclamations converts the tariff on Canadian whisky, beer, wine, whey products, molasses and large motorcycles into an outright prohibition on entry.
The two dates mark distinct phases of an escalation that has moved with unusual speed. The White House fact sheet accompanying the September 8 proclamations frames the list changes as a refinement “to better serve the public interest” and “to offset the burden to U.S. commerce,” language the administration has used since July to justify shifting which Canadian products absorb the duties. The import bans are described as the “natural consequence,” in U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s words, of Canada having “maintained and in fact increased its discrimination against U.S. commerce,” a reference to the counter-tariffs that took effect the same morning the proclamations were signed.
Ottawa has so far declined to answer in kind. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the American measures “relatively modest” at his cabinet’s retreat in Banff on Thursday and said officials were still studying them. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Friday that he remains in contact with Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick despite the absence of formal negotiations. On Saturday, Trump told reporters in Dublin that a deal could come “fairly soon” if Canada agreed to “treat our farmers better,” but nothing in his remarks suggested either deadline would be postponed.
What changes on Tuesday
The September 15 modification is set out in two annexes, one attached to the motor vehicle proclamation and one to the alcoholic beverages proclamation, both published by the White House and summarized by the RV Industry Association and customs brokers including GHY International.
Under the motor vehicle annex, the 50 per cent tariff is removed from Canadian salt, Portland cement, chemically pure sugars, toilet and facial tissue, bed sheets, refined lead, switchgear assemblies and fishing rods and their parts. It is added to furniture, paper and paperboard, and a range of aluminum and other metal products. Under the alcoholic beverages annex, whiskies, liqueurs and cordials in containers larger than four litres come off the tariff, an accommodation for American bottlers who import Canadian whisky in bulk for blending and packaging, while various cheeses, upholstery leather and motorboats are added. The White House fact sheet also cites all-terrain vehicles and “additional dairy products” among the additions.
The underlying rate does not change: everything on the list carries an additional 50 per cent ad valorem duty. Critically for Canadian shippers, the Section 338 tariffs stack on top of any Section 232 duties already applicable to steel, aluminum, autos, copper and lumber, and they apply regardless of whether goods qualify for preferential treatment under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. A CUSMA certificate of origin provides no relief from Section 338.
The removals are a genuine, if narrow, reprieve. Canadian salt producers, notably in Ontario and Nova Scotia, supply a large share of the road salt used by American municipalities in the northeastern and midwestern states, and cement plants in Ontario and Quebec ship heavily to border states. Both sectors were collateral damage in a dispute nominally about dairy, alcohol and cars, and their removal reflects lobbying by American municipal and construction interests as winter approaches. Toilet and facial tissue, a significant export from Canadian pulp and paper mills, likewise comes off, although paper and paperboard more broadly go on.
The additions are heavier. Canadian furniture exports to the United States, concentrated in Quebec and southern Ontario, run into the billions of dollars annually and now face a 50 per cent surcharge on top of the existing 10 per cent baseline that applies to non-CUSMA-compliant merchandise. All-terrain vehicles and motorboats, both manufactured at scale in Quebec, are seasonal products for which fall shipments feed spring inventory, so the timing is particularly awkward. The cheese additions widen the dairy front, and the aluminum product lines extend the pain already being felt by a sector under 50 per cent Section 232 duties.
What changes on September 29
The import bans are a different order of measure. A 50 per cent duty raises the price of a Canadian product in the American market; an exclusion order removes it from that market entirely for as long as the proclamation stands. Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 empowers the president to exclude products from countries found to be discriminating against American commerce, and the September 8 proclamations represent the first use of that exclusion authority in modern times.
Three annexes define the banned goods. For alcoholic beverages, the ban covers packaged beer, sparkling and still wines, cider, vermouth, other fermented beverages, and spirits including vodka, gin, rum, whisky, brandy and liqueurs. For some categories the ban applies only to products packaged for direct consumer sale, leaving bulk shipments for American bottling under the tariff rather than the prohibition. For dairy, the ban covers whey protein concentrates, dried whey, fluid whey and modified whey, along with various forms of molasses. For motor vehicles, it covers motorcycles and cycles with engine capacity above 800 cubic centimetres.
The proclamations include a transition rule that matters for anyone with product already in the pipeline. Goods covered by the ban that were imported into the United States before September 29 but have not yet been entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption remain subject to the 50 per cent duty rather than the prohibition. In practice, Canadian shippers with inventory in American bonded warehouses or foreign trade zones have a window to enter that product, pay the tariff and preserve its saleability. Product that arrives after 12:01 a.m. on September 29 will be refused. The proclamations also authorize U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in consultation with Treasury, Commerce and USTR, to issue implementing rules and to correct the product annexes through Federal Register notices, so brokers should watch for last-minute technical changes.
Distillers take the hardest hit
Of the Canadian sectors facing exclusion, spirits producers have the least room to manoeuvre. Cal Bricker, president of Spirits Canada, has described the order as “more or less a ban on Canadian whisky,” noting that distilleries have significant exposure to the American market and that legal rules governing the “Canadian whisky” designation prevent them from simply relocating production south of the border. Canadian whisky is a protected geographic indication under CUSMA itself; it must be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada. The only path into the American market after September 29 for packaged product is a change in the proclamation.
Shanken News Daily, the American beverage trade publication, reported that the order continues an escalation that began with the 81 per cent, or US$582 million, collapse in Canadian imports of American alcohol cited in the July 20 proclamation. That collapse was the product of provincial liquor boards pulling American spirits, wine and beer from their shelves in early 2025 in response to the first round of tariffs, a measure the White House has repeatedly characterized as discrimination against American commerce. The provinces have shown no inclination to restock, and the September 8 fact sheet describes Canada’s alcohol measures as having “increased” rather than eased.
Brewers are better insulated. Andrew Oland, chief executive of Moosehead Breweries, said he was “very disappointed” but not surprised to see alcohol dragged further into the dispute, noting that about 15 per cent of Moosehead’s output is shipped to the United States. Luke Chapman, vice-president of federal affairs at Beer Canada, said Canadian brewing is overwhelmingly a domestic industry and “far less dependent on the U.S. market than many other Canadian industries.” Wineries are the least exposed: Norman Beal, board chair of Ontario Craft Wineries, said roughly one per cent of members’ sales come from the United States. The Globe and Mail reported that some alcohol shipments will still be able to cross the border after the ban, chiefly bulk product not packaged for consumer sale.
The whey trade disappears
The dairy exclusion is narrower in product scope than the alcohol ban but significant in volume. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service data cited by Cheese Reporter show the United States imported almost 43 million pounds of whey protein concentrate from Canada in 2025, along with 21.2 million litres of fluid whey and 3.5 million pounds of dried whey. These are ingredients that flow between processors on both sides of the border as part of an integrated dairy supply chain, and the ban removes a northbound and southbound flow simultaneously, because Canada’s September 8 counter-tariffs impose a 50 per cent surtax on American whey and milk protein concentrates moving the other way.
The International Dairy Foods Association, which represents American processors, took the unusual step of publicly criticizing its own government’s measure. “While the concerns about Canadian protein pricing policies continue to remain unresolved, an import ban will not address these underlying issues,” the association said on Wednesday, urging both countries “to return to regular, constructive negotiations as soon as possible.” Dairy Farmers of Canada said it was deeply concerned by the escalation and pointed out that Canada is currently in compliance with its CUSMA dairy commitments as determined by the agreement’s dispute panels. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture warned that the measures “will disrupt established supply chains, increase costs, reduce food affordability and undermine the competitiveness of farmers and agriculture businesses on both sides of the border.”
The molasses inclusion, which puzzled some observers, appears to target Canadian sugar refiners who export by-product molasses to American feed and industrial users, and may be linked to the simultaneous removal of chemically pure sugars from the tariff list.
Motorcycles and the procurement front
The motorcycle exclusion covers a small trade in dollar terms but a symbolically loaded one, since the July 20 proclamation grounded the motor vehicle discrimination finding in a 22 per cent, or US$5.6 billion, drop in Canadian purchases of American vehicles. The 800 cubic centimetre threshold captures large touring and cruiser machines while sparing the smaller bikes, snowmobiles and side-by-sides that Quebec’s recreational vehicle manufacturers ship in volume, although ATVs join the tariff list on Tuesday.
Less noticed in the September 8 package was a procurement measure. The White House fact sheet states that the president has directed USTR and the General Services Administration to remove Canadian-origin products from GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules, which govern more than US$50 billion in federal purchasing. For Canadian firms that sell software, office products, medical supplies or professional services to American federal agencies through GSA schedules, this is potentially more damaging than any tariff, because it removes them from the approved vendor lists altogether. Implementation details have not been published.
The Canadian side of the ledger
Canada’s own measures, which triggered the American response, remain fully in force. The Department of Finance schedule imposes surtaxes of 15, 25 or 50 per cent on more than 700 American tariff lines, each rate matching the American rate on the corresponding Canadian export, across steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics. Goods in transit to Canada on September 8 were exempted. The government has said it intends, subject to Governor in Council approval, to extend the United States Surtax Remission Order (2025) to the new counter-tariffs, so that importers with no viable Canadian or third-country source can apply for relief.
Law firms including Blakes, McMillan, Osler and Norton Rose Fulbright have published client guidance noting that the counter-tariffs create opportunities as well as costs. Canadian producers of goods now subject to Canadian surtaxes, such as appliances, paper products and dairy ingredients, may gain domestic market share as American competitors become 15 to 50 per cent more expensive. Mexico, which Canada deliberately excluded from retaliation, offers a route for restructuring North American supply chains under CUSMA rules of origin. And the remission framework, which the government has run since 2025, gives importers a documented path to relief that did not exist in earlier rounds.
CBC News reported this week that the counter-tariffs will fall hardest on small and medium-sized Canadian businesses that import American machinery, components and consumer goods, while most households will barely notice because retailers are working through pre-tariff inventory. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has urged Ottawa to fast-track remission decisions for smaller firms.
A checklist for the next sixteen days
Exporters of goods added to the Section 338 list on Tuesday should immediately review contracts for tariff pass-through clauses, confirm with American importers of record how the 50 per cent duty will be declared, and reprice shipments that have not yet cleared. Because the duties apply regardless of CUSMA origin, there is no certification workaround. Exporters of goods removed from the list should ensure their American customers stop paying the surcharge on entries from September 15 forward and consider whether refund claims are available for entries made in error.
Producers of alcohol, whey and motorcycles facing the September 29 exclusion should inventory all product currently in the United States, distinguish between goods already entered for consumption and goods held in bond or in foreign trade zones, and make entry decisions before the deadline. Product entered before September 29 pays the 50 per cent duty and may be sold; product arriving after cannot enter. Companies should also review whether any of their lines fall outside the consumer-packaged definitions, since bulk shipments in some categories continue under the tariff rather than the ban.
Canadian importers of American goods should confirm classifications against the Finance schedule, document sourcing alternatives, and prepare remission applications for inputs with no domestic or third-country substitute. Firms that sell to American federal agencies should contact their GSA schedule contracting officers about the status of Canadian-origin products.
An escalation still in motion
The pattern of the past five months, in which duties were imposed on July 20, suspended for three days on August 18, reinstated on August 22, answered by Canada on September 8 and now expanded into product swaps and exclusions, shows a dispute that is still climbing rather than settling. The September 8 fact sheet describes only two countries, Canada and China, as having chosen to retaliate against American tariffs rather than negotiate. It also frames the current changes as refinements rather than a final position, and the proclamations themselves anticipate further amendment.
Trump’s suggestion on Saturday that a deal could come “fairly soon” is the first hint of a ceiling. But no negotiations are scheduled, Ottawa has announced no concessions, and the only concrete dates on the calendar are Tuesday’s list change, the September 29 ban and the threatened increase in American auto tariffs on January 1. Until one of those dates moves, Canadian businesses should treat the measures as they are written and plan accordingly.