No Tariffs? No Problem! Why our Canadian-Made Products Ship Tariff-Free to the U.S.

by Kate • shipping
Apr 14, 2025

If you’re ordering from the U.S. and eyeing our print on-demand products that are made in Canada, you will be pleasantly surprised at the checkout—no extra customs duties or tariffs will be added to your total. Better yet, your drop ship orders arriving to your customers will not encounter surprise fees upon delivery.

Why? We'll break it down for you.

What Is the De Minimis Threshold?
The de minimis threshold refers to the maximum value of goods that can be imported into a country without incurring duties or taxes. In the United States, this threshold is $800 USD. That means if your order’s value is under $800 and qualifies under de minimis rules, it can be imported duty-free.

But There's a Catch: Country of Origin Matters
Not all products under $800 are automatically duty-free. To qualify, the Country of Origin (COO) of the goods must meet specific criteria. Under trade agreements like CUSMA (also known as USMCA in the U.S. and T-MEC in Mexico), products that originate in Canada, the U.S., or Mexico can move between borders more easily—and more affordably.

If a product has a COO of Canada, it qualifies for tariff exemptions when shipped to the U.S., provided it meets the rules of origin under the trade agreement. In most cases, that means the product must be either:

Wholly obtained or produced in Canada, or
Substantially transformed in Canada, even if some components or materials are imported.

Why This Benefits U.S. Customers
When you buy a product that’s made in Canada like any of our custom-printed tote bags, headbands, or printed vegan leather purses—you’re not just supporting a North American manufacturer. You’re also skipping surprise fees. There are no tariffs or import duties applied at the border when your order is:

Valued under $800 USD, and
Has a Country of Origin of Canada.

That means what you pay at checkout is what you pay, period.

What Are Trump Tariffs?
During his presidency so far, Donald Trump has imposed a series of tariffs on goods imported into the United States, primarily targeting countries like China, and later expanding to include Europe and others. These tariffs were designed to protect American manufacturing by making imported goods more expensive.

These tariffs mostly affect:

High-volume commercial imports
Goods above the U.S. de minimis threshold
Products originating in countries that are not part of a free trade agreement with the U.S.

Currently (and we're writing this on April 14, 2025), almost all Art of Where products are exempt from tariffs. The only products that may have tariffs are coasters and water bottles/tumblers since in these 2 cases, we are printing on a pre-made product origining from China. When you checkout, you'll see a message if there may be tariffs on your order and how much that would be.

What about t-shirts?
While we make several options in all-over print tops, we also offer direct-to-film (DT-film) printing on t-shirts and other premade garments, also called placement prints. In this case, the base garment is coming from various countries including Nicaragua and Bangledesh, and we are doing the printing here in Montreal, Canada. Since these countries still qualify for the di minimus expection, t-shirts and other DT-film printed garments will also ship tariff-free.

Important to note!
If your order is over $800 USD, we will ship it in multiple shipments to keep the value below the $800 USD threshold for the di minimis exception. The ONLY situation in which you might encounter tariffs is if you place an order over $800 USD and need it shipped rush with DHL or another courier service. In this case, it will be stopped at the border and tariffs my apply. We encourage you to place large wholesale orders in advance so we don't need to rush ship them.

Quick Recap:

U.S. customers don’t pay tariffs on Canadian-made products under $800 USD.
The product’s Country of Origin must be Canada, not just fulfilled or printed in Canada.
Canadian-made products = no surprise border fees = happy customers.
Placement print products that we print with DT-film prints in Montreal, Canada, though made in countries other than Canada still qualify for tariff-free shipping.
The only 2 Art of Where printed products that might have tariffs are waterbottles/tumblers and coasters. If they do, you'll see the estimated amount when you check out and they would only take effect on May 2, 2025. We'll post again with updates on these 2 products.

Have questions about how our products ship or which items are duty-free? Reach out—we’re always happy to help!