What changed
The border stopped being a formality in August 2025.
For years, anything under US$800 crossed into the United States without duty or a formal entry. That exemption ended on 29 August 2025, for every country of origin. What used to be a postage decision is now a paperwork decision.
Every parcel needs an entry now
Value no longer decides it. A low-value order and a high-value one both need a customs entry, and both get assessed. The small shipment is where this hurts most, because the cost of getting it wrong has not shrunk to match.
Three fields you did not used to need
A valid 10-digit HTS code, a description a customs officer accepts, and the real country of manufacture — on every line of every shipment. For Canadian-made goods, a CUSMA certificate of origin on top.
Your consolidator asks you for them
Chit Chats and Stallion both now require the code, the description and the origin from you before they will move the parcel. They are not wrong to — but that is the work, and it has been handed to the seller.
Getting it wrong is slow, not loud
A wrong code does not bounce back. The parcel sits, the customer emails you, and you find out days later. Then you pay a correction fee and ship it again.
What we do about it
We produce the paperwork instead of asking you for it.
HS codes, checked before you ship
Classified once per product and reused on every order, with a warning at quote time rather than a hold at the border. You are told the code is wrong while you can still fix it for free.
Commercial invoice, generated
Built from the order, under your company name, with the CUSMA origin statement where the goods qualify for it. Not a template you fill in — a document we produce.
DDP or DDU, chosen per order
Prepay the duty so your customer sees one price at checkout, or bill it at the door. Both are priced in the quote before you commit, so the choice is a business decision rather than a surprise.
Landed cost in the quote
Postage, fuel, surcharges, brokerage, duty and tax — one all-in number per carrier per service. The comparison people actually need is between all-in totals, not between postage.
How current this is
These rules move, and we say when we last checked.
The position described on this page was verified in September 2026. Duty rates, thresholds and entry procedures have changed more than once since August 2025 and will change again — which is exactly why the numbers live in a live quote rather than on this page. Nothing here is customs advice; it is a description of what our software does.
Think this fits what you ship?
Tell us what you send, where it goes, and what your current tool gets wrong. That is the whole first conversation.