Three months ago, the US declined to renew the trade agreement that covers most freight moving between the US and Canada. Since then, a 50% US tariff has hit a long list of Canadian goods, and Canada has answered with tariffs of its own. If you run cross-border trucking lanes, the rules your customers ship under have changed several times since July.
The agreement itself is still in force. Trucks are still crossing. But the freight mix, the paperwork and the risk on those lanes are shifting, and carriers who plan for it will have an easier winter than carriers who wait.
The short version: USMCA (CUSMA in Canada) is still in force, but it no longer protects many Canadian goods from new US tariffs.
The Aug. 22 tariffs cover goods such as electronics, machinery, chemicals, plastics, textiles, wood and paper products, furniture, dairy ingredients, bakery mixes and alcohol. Energy, potash, fish and critical minerals are excluded. So are cars, auto parts, steel, aluminum and other goods already under separate Section 232 tariffs, which still apply.
What happens next. Because the agreement wasn't renewed, the three countries now review it every year instead of every six. It stays in force in the meantime unless a country withdraws. For carriers, that means tariffs and trade rules can change at any point, with little warning.
Your freight mix may shift. Carriers don't pay these tariffs. The importer does. But a 50% duty changes what customers order and when, and the goods on the list include plenty of truckload freight, like furniture, machinery, plastics and wood and paper products. Federal border freight data runs months behind, so there's no hard read yet on how much volume has moved. Your own customers will know before the statistics do.
Paperwork has less room for error. US-bound trucks need an ACE eManifest and, for PAPS shipments, the customs broker's entry number on file with CBP at least one hour before the driver reaches the border, according to BorderConnect. New tariff rules give customs brokers more to sort out on each shipment. If the entry isn't ready, your truck waits, and so does your driver's clock.
Drivers face a language check. Since June 2025, US inspectors can place a driver out of service for failing an English proficiency check, and that includes Canadian drivers on US roads, as law firm MLT Aikins explains. FMCSA carved out an exception for commercial zones on the Mexican border, but not the Canadian one.
Fraud is catching up in Canada. DAT reports that cargo theft in Canada nearly doubled in 2025, with more than 1,600 incidents in Ontario alone. The common schemes are the same ones US carriers know: impersonated carriers, double brokering and spoofed emails.
Most of that checklist comes down to having the border steps built into dispatch instead of living in someone's inbox. Tracx is built for carriers that run US–Canada lanes:
If cross-border freight is a big part of your business, book a demo and we'll walk through a border load from dispatch to invoice.
Is USMCA still in effect? Yes. The US declined to renew it at the July 1, 2026 joint review, but the agreement stays in force. It now gets reviewed every year.
Do the 50% US tariffs apply to USMCA-qualifying goods? Yes, for the products they cover. The Section 338 tariffs that took effect Aug. 22, 2026 apply even to goods that qualify under USMCA. Energy, potash, fish, critical minerals and goods already under Section 232 tariffs are excluded.
Do trucking companies pay the tariffs? No. The importer of record pays duties. Carriers can still feel it through changes in freight volume and delays when customs paperwork isn't ready.
When does an ACE eManifest need to be filed? According to BorderConnect, the ACE eManifest and, for PAPS shipments, the customs broker's entry number must be on file with CBP at least one hour before the truck reaches the border.
Can Canadian truck drivers be put out of service for English proficiency? Yes, when driving in the US. FMCSA's exception for border commercial zones covers only the US–Mexico border.
