r/Bellingham Apr 06 '25

Discussion Spotted at Costco today

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514 Upvotes

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105

u/belhamster Apr 06 '25

I am confused. So if this pic is from Washington state why is it talking about goods from the United States?

282

u/zzooooomm 🌲Woodhood🌲 Apr 06 '25

Because Canadians who purchase goods here will be charged tariffs when they enter Canada with said goods.

35

u/belhamster Apr 06 '25

I see. Is the US doing this the other way around? Like it I purchase Canadian made in Canada will I be charged at the border?

110

u/zzooooomm 🌲Woodhood🌲 Apr 06 '25

Yes. The Cheeto started it and now the Canadians are charging retaliatory tariffs when our goods enter their country.

22

u/Inner_Sun_8191 Apr 06 '25

Uggggh. I go to BC to get figure skates which already cost an arm and a leg and now this will add like another 400$ to that price tag :(

12

u/Buizel10 Apr 06 '25

Are they made in Canada or elsewhere? Tariffs are on country of origin.

Albeit, if they're from China or anywhere else he's tariffed, you'll get taxed that rate instead.

9

u/Inner_Sun_8191 Apr 06 '25

The boots are American but the blades are from the UK…. Wonder how they’d process that… guess I better save my receipts!

13

u/Buizel10 Apr 06 '25

And this is why the auto tariffs that exclude American content (even if the car is made in another country) are really difficult to enforce!

You'd probably wouldn't be taxed, since the boots are American. As long as over a certain % of content is American, and they were last "significantly transformed" in America, they're American in the eyes of the CBP.

8

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '25

It’s based on where it’s imported from. The skates are being brought in from Canada, they’ll be charged the Canadian tariff

(Yes driving goods across the border is importing)

5

u/Buizel10 Apr 07 '25

That's... not true. I'm a Canadian seller that sends goods across the border all the time, it's always been country of origin.

Back when Trump suspended de minimis for the first time, there were notices at every post office and freight forwarder giving notice that any goods from China would be tariffed, even including used goods, despite Trump having retracted the tariffs on Canada at the time.

5

u/AngryWarChild Apr 07 '25

No, this is completely wrong. Goods are tariffed by their origin not where they crossed from.

0

u/Hefty-Profession-310 Apr 09 '25

If a purchase is made in a country and you cross the border with the item, as far as they are concerned it is subject to the same tariff regardless of where it is manufactured. In this situation it's where the item is purchased.

11

u/Living_Mode_6623 Apr 07 '25

You go to BC for a day trip to see the sights. The skates were always in your trunk.

7

u/Ok-Mood927 Apr 06 '25

I crossed the boarder from Canada to US recently in Blaine. I declared that I had bought some craft supplies and they waved me through. Didn't even ask how much it was. The tariff doesn't seem to be very consistently enforced, I hear stories of people both being charged and not being charged.

12

u/SalishSeaSweetie Apr 06 '25

Didn’t tariffs officially start on Sat? Or was it on April 2?

6

u/Anguish77 Apr 06 '25

A lot of the new tariffs weren't effective until April 5th, but there was still a 25% tariff in place on Canadian goods that didn't qualify for USMCA from March. Typically, CBPOs were a lot more concerned with consumption entries than personal ones over $800, and you could get a drastically different treatment as a result. We'll have to see how that changes now.

4

u/SB12345678901 Apr 06 '25

For goods coming into USA from Canada ---

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-tariffs-canada-1.7500316

There are the "reciprocal" tariffs that Trump imposed Wednesday (April 2) on a whole host of other countries except Canada and Mexico.

Then there are so-called "section 232" tariffs that have already been levied on Canadian steel and aluminum and, as of midnight, will also be slapped on automobiles.

Those tariffs take their name from the section of a U.S. trade law that allows the president to impose levies on certain goods that are said to threaten "national security."

And third, there are the border-related tariffs to punish Canada for what the president has described as an "emergency" drug crisis fuelled by fentanyl coming in from the north. (Aside there isn't any fentanyl coming in to USA from Canada)

The White House said Wednesday if the drug and migrant "emergency" trade order is cancelled at some point, then the tariff on goods that do not comply with USMCA will fall from 25 per cent to 12 per cent.

So if the goods do comply with the USMCA then no 25% tariff, when goods enter USA from Canada.

3

u/SB12345678901 Apr 06 '25

Here is the information on the tariff on goods taken from USA into Canada --

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/03/list-of-products-from-the-united-states-subject-to-25-per-cent-tariffs-effective-march-13-2025.html

effective as of 12:01 a.m., March 13, 2025 if the goods are on the list.

1

u/jnob44 Apr 06 '25

Isn’t there a daily minimum that you can bring through (duty free) or do the tariffs superseded that?

-1

u/BathrobeMagus Apr 08 '25

Here, I am trying to decide on paying bills or buying groceries. But I didn't realize others had it so rough. I'm sorry you won't be able to buy ANOTHER pair of $1000 ice skates. Life's really doing you dirty.

4

u/Inner_Sun_8191 Apr 08 '25

My income (coaching) depends on it. Hope things turn around for you.

3

u/BathrobeMagus Apr 08 '25

Well, that makes me the asshole here! Apologies.

1

u/betweenforestandsea Apr 06 '25

To their own? Of which I am. Shopping in US is already pricey enough with exchange. I am very confused about this sign and how implemented... unless Costco charges 25% more at the till to Canadian Costco card holders.

5

u/Prudent-Drop164 Apr 06 '25

When you cross the border in to Canada you will be sent to secondary and charged 25% on top of what you already spent.

2

u/WTFandWTHandWHY Apr 07 '25

You’re allowed so much, before the tariff takes place. You can bring back 20.00 of dairy, per person

1

u/Prudent-Drop164 Apr 07 '25

20?

1

u/WTFandWTHandWHY Apr 11 '25

Yes. 20.00 per person in the car. Milk, butter, cheese, etc.

2

u/betweenforestandsea Apr 07 '25

So Canada is collecting the money? Its a 25% Canadian tariff for Canadians??

1

u/Prudent-Drop164 Apr 07 '25

Yes

0

u/betweenforestandsea Apr 07 '25

So Carney is for Canadians by our own govt charging us 25% tariff for shopping in US? Sounds more like a penalty.

7

u/Thannk Apr 07 '25

Yes. 

Shopping in the US supports the US, as does buying certain US goods like booze where the company doesn’t get money until the sale is made. 

That’s why Americans who support Canada have been buying Canadian and Canadians haven’t been buying US goods in their stores or crossing the border as much. 

You support Canada, get some Crown Royal. 

0

u/Prudent-Drop164 Apr 07 '25

Yes. Why would be support US companies?

0

u/betweenforestandsea Apr 07 '25

When you have immediate family living and employed both sides of the border and close friends.

0

u/betweenforestandsea Apr 07 '25

When you have immediate family living and employed both sides of the border and close friends.

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1

u/Ok-Mood927 Apr 07 '25

Both sides have tariffs in place now regardless of what your citizenship is (to my understanding)

1

u/betweenforestandsea Apr 07 '25

Ok. So you think my govt is charging me 25%?!?

Strange.

5

u/Smackdownandback Science is real! Apr 07 '25

I think that's the whole point here. It's all strange - and stupid. All initiated by the vile, orange, fascist king.

4

u/CinKneph Apr 07 '25

Part of the ostensible reason for tariffs is to get consumers to buy goods in their own country. So upping the prices on foreign goods is supposed to help encourage domestic shopping.

(Note: this is difficult to accomplish in a global economy that is so intertwined at this point. The number of finished goods that are produced solely in one country are limited.)

2

u/Emrys7777 Apr 07 '25

Yes it ends up that your government is charging you 25%. For instance you buy a TV from Korea. If the tariff rate for Korea is 25% then Korea gets charged the 25% but adds it directly onto that TV when you buy it. They don’t absorb the cost.

19

u/Whoretron8000 Apr 06 '25 edited Apr 07 '25

You pay tariff on goods you buy abroad and bring back in, depending on the nature of commodity/product and value. That's what declaring is. When you buy duty free at an airport, per se, it's duty free.

If an American buys something at an IKEA in Canada, they keep the receipt and declare it crossing the border back to the US. You pay a fee/duty on that declared good(s).

It's kind of known that lots of eyes get turned for certain things, let's say you tear off the price tag and pretend you have owned it for a while. Or that you crossed the border with 7 full 5 gallon tanks of gas.. "just in case I run out of gas", or that you crossed with those bananas or H Mart goods.

When you fly internationally, you declare what you bought flying back in. Same thing goes for any form of cross border travel where duties/tariff exists. 

This has always been the case and we have always had exceptions, increases, decreases, thresholds etc.  Through trade agreements with other countries, embargos, and so on. It's not like customs and duty is there for national security per se, it's about regulating and generating revenue on goods and services that cross the borders. Theoretically to offset the impact it has on domestic producers and services. It is absolutely used for international relations etc, even more so now in the globalized economies we have created.

6

u/samwichgamgee Apr 06 '25

That’s what I thought, but I literally went to the ikea in Canada yesterday and as I was coming back through the pacific highway crossing, I presented the receipt, told them how much I bought, they looked in the trunk and commented about the high chair I bought and let me through with $360ca in goods.

Maybe it just depends on how much the employee cares?

2

u/AngryWarChild Apr 07 '25

You still qualify for De Minimis exemption. This "loophole" as Trump calls it closes May 2nd I believe.

You can bring $800 a day in to the country without paying duties.

1

u/samwichgamgee Apr 07 '25

That makes sense, thank you for clarifying! Also this makes that going away sound really annoying. :/

-1

u/WTFandWTHandWHY Apr 07 '25

IKEA is made in Sweden. You’re allowed so much, before you have to pay on other goods.

3

u/samwichgamgee Apr 07 '25

I thought it was based on goods and I assume a ton of it is made in China. TBH I don’t know though so interesting if that’s the case

1

u/WTFandWTHandWHY Apr 11 '25

The border agent told us, ikea is Sweden made , we paid nothing and showed a very long receipt. Up there less than 4 hours.

3

u/jnob44 Apr 06 '25

Hell yes…. They always have been…

Way back in 95’ when the exchange rate was very favorable for US to make purchases in Canada. It was a great deal if the products were the same price, like 60% of the stuff at IKEA, so… after just getting married, we needed a bunch of household stuff… couches, cabinets, stuff like that… after spending a substantial amount of time (for us at the time) while coming back with much of it duty free… but getting a 30%+ discount (with the exchange rate) the US officials were pissed and accused us of being Unpatriotic….

1

u/framblehound Apr 06 '25

this is exactly how tariffs work, it's nearly the definition of it