The 50% Canada Tariff and Your Classic Car: What You Actually Pay | 2026 Guide

A 50% tariff on Canadian goods went live at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on August 22, 2026, covering more than 500 tariff lines. Passenger cars are on none of them. We pulled the actual covered-article list, and the short version is that a collector car coming out of Canada pays the same 2.5% it paid in July.

Published August 24, 2026. This one is moving fast, so the numbers below are the ones in force today.

What the 50% actually covers

President Trump signed three proclamations on July 20, 2026 under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the first use of that statute in its 96 years. One covers alcohol, one covers dairy, and one is titled motor vehicles. Each runs on its own list of tariff subheadings, and those lists are the whole ballgame.

The motor vehicle list holds 439 subheadings. Exactly one of them sits in chapter 87, the chapter where vehicles live: 8711.50.00, motorcycles with a piston engine over 800 cc. Heading 8703, where every passenger car on earth is classified, is not there. Neither is 8704, 8708 or 8716.

Cars were left out because they are already carrying the 25% Section 232 auto duty, and the proclamations were drafted not to stack on top of Section 232. So the proclamation named for motor vehicles is a retaliation basket aimed at everything except motor vehicles.

One thing that surprised us: a USMCA claim buys nothing here. Originating goods pay the 50% like everyone else, which is a break from how every recent tariff action has worked.

What a classic from Canada actually pays

A vehicle manufactured at least 25 years before the year of entry drops out of the Section 232 auto duty and reports under HTSUS 9903.94.04 at zero. For a 2026 entry that means a car built in 2001 or earlier. The test runs on year of manufacture against year of entry, not model year, and not a rolling anniversary.

Take the exemption away and the whole stack collapses to the base rate in the schedule. Here is the same $80,000 car, twice.

Merchandise processing fee of 0.3464% rides on top, capped at $651.50 per formal entry and rising to $670.86 on October 1. Harbor maintenance fee of 0.125% only attaches to cargo loaded or unloaded from a vessel, so a land crossing skips it. The 25% on a modern car can be limited to non-US content under headings 9903.94.02 and 9903.94.03, but that mechanism was built for automakers and is not open to someone buying a used car.

Where the car was built beats where it ships from

Section 301 and Section 338 duties key off country of origin. CBP puts it in one sentence: these duties are based on country of origin, not country of export. Parking a car in Ontario for fifteen years does not make it Canadian. Nothing short of a substantial transformation does.

That single rule settles most of the Canadian consignments we get asked about.

The 9801 route has one soft spot. CBP asks for a foreign shipper's declaration, an importer's declaration, and for anything returning after three years, a statement from the US manufacturer confirming US build. Getting an OEM to write that for a single VIN is the hard part, and a VIN starting with 1, 4 or 5 is evidence but is not the document CBP wants. CBP guidance is also not perfectly consistent on whether a chapter 98 claim beats the Section 232 duty, so on a modern car that is a 25% question worth settling with your broker first.

The chapter 97 trap nobody is talking about

The 439-line list carries a run of chapter 97 subheadings, and they are easy to skate past: 9701.21.00, 9701.91.00, 9701.99.00, 9702.90.00, 9703.10.00, 9703.90.00, 9704.00.00, 9705.10.00, 9705.29.00, 9705.39.00 and 9706.90.00. Sculpture, stamps, coin collections, collectors' pieces of historical interest, antiques over 100 years old.

Read the digits, because the neighbours behave differently. Engravings over 100 years old sit at 9702.10.00 and are clear. Antiques over 250 years old sit at 9706.10.00 and are clear. Coin collections over 100 years old sit at 9705.31.00 and are clear. Coverage turns on the exact subheading, not the category.

So at a Canadian sale the car is fine and the lot next to it may not be. Buy the poster, the trophy, the coin tray or the hundred-year-old oil painting from the same consignment and you can walk into 50% on the automobilia while the car itself sails through at 2.5%.

Could a car itself land in chapter 97? Almost never, and the ruling that settled it came out of Canada. In HQ H307522, CBP put a 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B imported from Canada in heading 8703 at 2.5% rather than 9705, on the grounds that the car was not owned or driven by a famous person, was not of historical interest, and had no connection to a historic race. CBP added that being rare or being old is not enough. Which is a fairly withering thing to say about an 8C 2900B, but there it is.

Bringing a car in temporarily

Temporary entries stay outside the 50% entirely. The proclamations exempt goods properly entered under any provision of chapter 98, with only the 9802 repair and assembly subheadings carved back in, and CBP restated that in its guidance. Temporary importation under bond, ATA carnets and American goods returned are all chapter 98.

Pick the right TIB subheading first, because subchapter XIII is a menu and the collector cases are scattered across it. Cars solely for show go under 9813.00.75. Cars and motorcycles brought in by a nonresident to run in a race or contest go under 9813.00.35. Repair, alteration or processing is 9813.00.05, testing is 9813.00.30, and fine art for exhibition is 9813.00.70. Filing a concours car under the repair subheading is the classic error on this route.

No duty is collected on any of them. A bond takes its place, generally double the duties and fees that would otherwise be owed, sized to cover the Section 232 duty even though nothing changes hands up front. Miss the export deadline and the liquidated damages run to double the estimated duties.

Carnets run one year and cannot be extended. Canada is a carnet country and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce issues them. What a carnet will not do is cover a sale. Dispose of carnet goods in the US and the guaranteeing association owes 110% of the duties and taxes. Display at an auction is fine. The moment the hammer falls you need to convert to a consumption entry while the carnet is still live, and the full stack attaches.

The simplest route is also the most common one. Under 19 CFR 148.45 a nonresident can bring an automobile, trailer, motorcycle or bicycle in free of duty and tax, provided it carries only the nonresident, their family and guests. A Canadian driving to a show in Michigan is in this lane. No entry, no bond, no tariff.

Three definitions of old enough

NHTSA, EPA and CBP each run their own age test, and they do not line up. This is where most Canadian imports go sideways.

A car can clear EPA at 21 and still owe 25% and still fail FMVSS. For Canadian cars specifically, HS-7 box 2B is the workhorse: certified by the original manufacturer to Canadian standards, confirmed by that manufacturer as meeting FMVSS, not salvage, imported for personal use.

For temporary entries, box 5 is the nonresident declaration. Everything else runs through NHTSA's permission programs covering research, demonstration, competitive racing and show or display, each needing written approval before the car arrives. Show or display also caps you at 2,500 miles a year and no road registration. Check box numbers against the current form revision, since NHTSA renumbers them. On the EPA side, code O is nonresident use up to a year, K is display, I is testing, G is repairs and L is racing. Display, testing and repairs need an approval letter and a bond.

What happens next

Talks broke off on Friday, August 21, and the duties went live the next morning. On August 24 President Trump posted that on January 1, 2027 tariffs on all cars, trucks, automotive parts and steel would go to 50%. Nothing has been signed. If it does land it will almost certainly come as a change to the Section 232 auto action, which is the mechanism already producing the 25%.

For collectors the question is narrow: does the 25-year exclusion survive the rewrite? It has survived every previous change to the auto action and there is no sign it is a target. It is still the line to watch.

Where that leaves you

The 50% in the headlines is not your number. A modern car built in Canada pays 27.5%. A car 25 years or older pays 2.5%. A car that merely lived in Canada takes the treatment of whichever country built it. And a car coming in temporarily, on a bond, on a carnet, or under its own power with a Canadian at the wheel, stays outside the 50% completely.

Where the 50% does reach a collector is everything travelling beside the car. Check the chapter 97 lines before you bid on the automobilia.

These rates move by executive action and get confirmed at the moment of entry, so treat everything here as the picture on August 24, 2026 and have your customs broker confirm your classification. We keep every change logged in our US car import law tracker.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 50% Canada tariff apply to cars?

No. Passenger vehicles of heading 8703 appear on none of the three Section 338 covered lists, and vehicles already subject to the Section 232 auto action are zero-rated at HTSUS heading 9903.03.15. The only chapter 87 line covered is 8711.50.00, motorcycles over 800 cc.

When did the 50% Section 338 tariff on Canada take effect?

At 12:01 a.m. Eastern on August 22, 2026. Proclamations 11046, 11047 and 11048 originally set August 19, and Proclamation 11056 suspended that by three days while talks continued. There is no in-transit grandfather provision.

How much duty do I pay importing a classic car from Canada?

A car manufactured at least 25 years before the year of entry pays the 2.5% base duty under heading 8703 and nothing else, because it is excluded from Section 232 at 9903.94.04, excluded from Section 301 at 9903.05.90, and is not a covered article under Section 338. On an $80,000 car that is $2,000 plus the merchandise processing fee. Confirm the Section 301 point with your broker, since a 25-year-old car sits outside Section 232 altogether.

Does the Section 338 tariff apply to temporary imports?

No. The proclamations exempt goods properly entered under a provision of chapter 98, except for subchapter XXIII and subheadings 9802.00.40, 9802.00.50, 9802.00.60 and heading 9802.00.80. Temporary importation under bond in subchapter XIII and ATA carnet entries are both chapter 98 and both outside the 50%.

Can I bring a car in on a carnet and sell it?

No. Carnet goods cannot be sold. If a car on a carnet is sold, donated or otherwise disposed of in the United States, the national guaranteeing association becomes liable for 110% of the import duties and taxes. The correct move is to ask CBP to convert to a consumption entry while the carnet is still valid, at which point the normal duty stack applies.

Does USMCA exempt a car from the Canada tariffs?

Not from Section 338. USMCA origin gives no relief from the 50% on covered goods, which breaks from earlier tariff actions. USMCA does exempt goods of Canada from the Section 301 forced-labor duty at heading 9903.05.93, and a genuinely originating vehicle enters free of the 2.5% base duty and free of the merchandise processing fee.

Is a car shipped from Canada but built in Germany treated as Canadian?

No. Section 301 and Section 338 duties are based on country of origin, not country of export, and storing or registering a car in Canada is not a substantial transformation. A German-built car exported from Canada takes EU treatment, and if it is 25 years or older it takes the same 25-year Section 232 exclusion as any other classic.

Can a US-built car return from Canada duty free?

Potentially, under HTSUS 9801.00.10 for American goods returned, provided the car was not advanced in value or improved in condition while abroad. There is no time limit for US-origin goods, but CBP may require a foreign shipper's declaration, an importer's declaration, and for a car returning after more than three years, a statement from the US manufacturer verifying US manufacture. Confirm the Section 232 treatment of the claim with your broker before shipping.