TRADE POLICY | 2026-09-19

On September 29, 2026, Certain Canadian Goods Stop Being Importable at Any Price

Five proclamations under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 move from a 50 percent duty to an outright entry ban on packaged alcoholic beverages, dairy, whey, molasses and large motorcycles.

A tariff is a price. A Section 338 exclusion is a door. Beginning at 12:01 a.m. eastern time on September 29, 2026, a defined list of Canadian-origin goods may not be admitted into the United States at all — not at 50 percent, not at any rate. For California importers and distributors holding Canadian beer, wine, spirits, dairy or heavy motorcycles, the planning question is no longer duty cost. It is whether the merchandise is entered before the deadline.

What Takes Effect on September 29

On September 8, 2026, the President signed a set of proclamations under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 excluding specified Canadian products from importation into the United States. A proclamation covering alcoholic beverages was published in the Federal Register on September 14, 2026. The exclusions take effect at 12:01 a.m. eastern time on September 29, 2026.

The categories identified include packaged alcoholic beverages — malt beer, wine, cider, whisky, vodka and other spirits — along with non-alcoholic beer, specified whey products, molasses, dairy products, and motorcycles and similar cycles with reciprocating internal-combustion engines exceeding 800 cubic centimeters.

These measures sit on top of an existing 50 percent Section 338 duty that has applied to a broader set of Canadian goods since August 22, 2026, and a separate scope revision effective September 15 under which the 50 percent duty began stacking with Section 232 duties on certain steel structures, aluminum profiles and tubes, rivets and welding consumables.

Why an Exclusion Is Not a Tariff

Section 338 is an unusual authority. It permits the President to respond to foreign discrimination against United States commerce either by imposing duties or by excluding goods from entry entirely. The second remedy has almost never been used in the modern era, which is why most tariff-planning instincts do not transfer.

The distinctions that matter operationally:

There is no rate to pay. An importer cannot absorb the cost, pass it through, or price around it. Covered merchandise is inadmissible.

Mitigation tools do not apply. Duty drawback returns duties paid on goods that were lawfully entered. Where entry itself is barred, there is nothing to recover.

The goods must go somewhere. Merchandise that arrives after the deadline faces export, destruction, or a bonded-warehouse posture that does not itself solve the problem, because withdrawal for consumption is the act that is barred.

The Transition Rule Is the Most Valuable Detail

Canadian goods that have been imported but not yet entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before September 29 remain subject to the 50 percent duty rather than the ban.

That sentence is the whole planning problem, and it turns on a term of art. "Entered for consumption" is not the same as arrived, unloaded, or released. Merchandise sitting on a dock, or in a bonded warehouse, or moving in-bond, has not necessarily been entered. An importer who assumes physical presence in the United States is sufficient may find the entry cannot be filed on September 29.

Companies with Canadian product in transit should be working from entry dates this week, with their customs broker, and should confirm in writing when each shipment will actually be entered — not when it is expected to arrive.

Classification Decides Coverage

The motorcycle exclusion illustrates how narrow these lines are: it reaches cycles with reciprocating internal-combustion engines exceeding 800 cubic centimeters. An 800cc machine and an 801cc machine are on opposite sides of the measure. Electric models are outside a criterion written around reciprocating internal combustion.

The same precision applies elsewhere. "Packaged" alcoholic beverages is a different universe from bulk shipments. "Specified whey" is not all whey. Dairy classification is notoriously granular. An importer should be reading the annexed tariff numbers in the proclamations against the numbers actually transmitted on their entries, not reasoning from product names.

Origin deserves the same scrutiny. These measures reach Canadian-origin goods. A product finished in Canada from inputs elsewhere, or finished elsewhere from Canadian inputs, presents a substantial transformation question that should be answered on the documentation rather than assumed from the shipping point. We discuss the underlying duty regime in our note on the 50 percent Section 338 duties on Canadian products.

What This Means for California Businesses

The exposure is not limited to importers of record. Distributors, retailers, restaurant groups and equipment dealers holding supply commitments in these categories face a supply interruption that no duty payment resolves.

Three questions are worth answering now. Does any existing purchase order call for delivery of covered merchandise after September 29, and what does the contract say about impossibility or illegality of performance? Does an alternative non-Canadian source exist, and what is the classification and duty profile of that source? And where merchandise is already en route, is the entry date confirmed rather than projected?

It is also worth tracking the other direction. Canada's own counter-tariffs on more than 700 United States products took effect September 8, 2026, so a California company that both imports from and exports to Canada is exposed on both sides of the same dispute.

Practical Steps Before the Deadline

Map covered SKUs by HTS number from the proclamation annexes against the classifications actually used on recent entries.

Confirm entry dates in writing with the customs broker for every shipment in transit, distinguishing arrival from entry for consumption.

Decide the disposition of goods that will miss the date — export, destruction, or hold — before they arrive, not after.

Review contracts for force majeure, illegality and allocation of duty and non-delivery risk.

Document the analysis. If a company concludes its product is outside the scope, the reasoning and the supporting specifications should exist in a file now, because that conclusion may be tested at the port.

How Trembach Law Helps

Trembach Law advises importers, distributors and manufacturers on tariff classification, country-of-origin analysis, entry timing, and responses to CBP inquiries, and represents clients in customs penalty and seizure matters. Attorney Anatolii Trembach is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of International Trade, so a dispute that escalates from an admissibility question into litigation stays with the same counsel.

The firm is based in Calabasas, serves importers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and represents importers nationwide.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice. Whether particular merchandise falls within an exclusion depends on its classification, origin and entry facts, and no outcome is guaranteed.

Contact Trembach Law Firm at (818) 514-7680 for a confidential consultation.

Trembach Law Firm | 27001 Agoura Road, Suite 350, Calabasas, CA 91301