Jamey Gordon, Managing Director, Looking Glass Group. Adjunct Professor, Schulich School of Business.
The short answer: no. The under-800$ duty-free rule, de minimis, was suspended in August 2025, a court upheld the suspension in August 2026 and Congress has repealed it outright from mid-2027. A parcel shipped from Canada now pays duty on its retail value plus a brokerage fee per entry. Bulk import to US stock pays duty on commercial value once per pallet. On a 60$ item the difference is about 6$ a unit.
I spent an hour last month with a Canadian founder who still ships her US orders parcel by parcel from a Toronto warehouse. Her cost per unit had crept up all year and nobody had put the pieces together.
What de minimis was and why it is gone
For years an item under 800$ shipped to a US consumer crossed the border duty free. That rule made cross-border direct-to-consumer from a Canadian warehouse a real business model. It was suspended for all countries on Aug 29, 2025. A court upheld the suspension on Aug 13, 2026 and the statutory repeal takes effect July 1, 2027. It is not coming back.
The part most brands miss: what duty is assessed on
Ship a 60$ retail item as a parcel and duty is calculated on 60$. At an illustrative 15% rate that is 9$ per unit, plus a brokerage fee that commonly runs 8$ to 15$ per entry. Per parcel.
Import the same item in bulk to US stock first and duty is calculated on your commercial value. Say 18$ landed. That is 2.70$ per unit, with one set of clearance paperwork spread across the whole pallet.
Call it 6$ a unit before you count the one-star reviews from customers surprised by a duty bill at the door.
It cuts both ways
The tariff rounds since August work in both directions. US goods entering Canada are getting the same treatment, so a US brand shipping parcels north has the same arithmetic to do.
What to do instead
Warehouse in the destination market. A 3PL in the US, Amazon FBA, or CastleGate for Wayfair volume. Import in bulk on commercial value, clear once and ship domestic. It is boring advice. It is also correct again, and for most Canadian brands selling into the US it was the answer before de minimis made the shortcut look free.
If you are still shipping parcels south, go find your per-entry brokerage fee on the last invoice. Multiply it by last month's US orders. That is the number to bring to the warehousing conversation.
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Sources: Here We Ship on the US de minimis suspension (Aug 24, 2026), OnFlair Group (Aug 13, 2026), DropshipperLab on the court ruling (Aug 14, 2026), DCL Corp on Section 338 tariffs on Canada (Aug 26, 2026). The 9$ vs 2.70$ example is illustrative at a 15% rate on 60$ retail vs 18$ commercial value.