Duties on American tea shipped to Canada?
In the past, tea shipped to Canada was never subject to taxes or duties. However, in one of the many salvos in the trade war, Canada put a 25% tariff on tea coming from the States.
Have any Canadians bought tea from the U.S. since then and have you been charged? The First Pluck Bi Luo Chun from Seven Cups was my favourite spring tea of 2024, but I won’t purchase it again if there’s a chance I’ll have to pay 25% extra, plus that $9.95 brokerage fee Canada Post adds on for the heck of it.
I’m considering buying BLC from The Sweetest Dew and Hojo if Seven Cups doesn’t work out, but I really loved that tea.
I can’t help you as living across the ocean. But, sadly, I would expect it is unevitable.
What comes to my mind as workaround, is that someone from US buys it and then they will send it to you and declare as a gift. There are usually higher value limits to pay the taxes and duties, than for commercial shipments.
Of course, sadly, it means two shipping costs.
Martin, thanks for the workaround, and I was actually thinking of doing that if all else fails. However, it’s kind of a hassle for the person doing the shipping, and I’m also not sure what the gift limit is. I might need to ask an American tea friend to do this if I ever want to have A Different Eighteen from Song again …
I actually don’t want a lot of tea from the States, just those greens from Seven Cups, the hongcha from Floating Leaves, and anything I can justify buying from Song. I would have liked to try Red Blossom and Té Company as well, though that never happened. There are lots of other Taiwan tea vendors in other parts of the world. Instead of Verdant and Tea Habitat, I can get Dancongs from Wuyi Origin and Hojo. Chinese reds can come from Wuyi Origin, What-Cha, TheTea, and DXJD.
I was wondering the exact same thing, only in the opposite direction. I live in the US, and prior to These Current Dark Times, if I ordered tea internationally I never had any extra taxes/duties/charges from customs (I’d ordered from Canada, the UK, Japan, and China in the past). Now I’m too scared to order from any international tea site. Any knowledge from anyone that’s tried it, please let me know.
I think most tea shipped internationally to the States will have tariffs now, though that may not affect you while the de minimis exemption still applies. (I’ve heard that as of today, the de minimis will end on May 2 for China, though I’m not sure if that’s true for other countries as well.) Not only are these rules difficult to understand for customers and businesses, but the fact that they keep changing so fast makes people unable to plan ahead. I’m sure a lot of Americans are scared to buy tea and other things internationally right now, and people from other countries are scared to buy from American vendors.
It would be interesting to hear reports from the field from anyone who has bought tea internationally. Are the tariffs starting to affect you?
I see that as of today (14 April, ’25) Yunnan Sourcing DOT-COM has posted a notice that shipping to the USA is on “indefinite hiatus”, and is directing buyers to their DOT-US site, which ships from a Texas warehouse. In the past, there have been different teas available between the two sites (fewer on the Texas site). Nothing was said about whether that might change, nor pricing variances (the Texas site was priced a few dollars higher per item, but had far lower shipping rates). For example, the $141.50 cake of 2011 Yunnan Sourcing “Shang Chun” Raw Pu-erh is $9 more on the Texas site, although the 25g, $14 sample of the same tea is only 25 cents more. Flat-rate shipping is $6 (free for orders over $75).
Tealyra dot-com continues to offer free shipping to US & Canada for orders over USD$50 with no pricing difference though it is less transparent how they achieve that. My past order tracking (3 March ‘25) seemed to reflect a customs clearance in Memphis-TN, and so I suspect this may change soon. Nevertheless, they also have sites for Germany, UK, Australia and more, though I don’t know how those are delivered. Moving forward, cross-border customers
may want to order by phone to be sure.
Are you sure the free shipping threshold is $25? That seems very low. If that’s the case, I may need to pick up that Taiwanese Assam you were raving about a while ago.
I’m surprised you didn’t incur any charges if you’re getting tea in the States from their Canadian warehouse. That would be a positive sign for other Americans seeking to import Canadian tea (though not necessarily for this Canadian wanting to import American tea).
ETA: I just checked the website and free shipping starts at $65 for me. Sigh.
I’ve ordered from Tealyra several times in the past and it’s always been $65 free shipping for me as long as I can remember.
I’m so sorry, that was a typo, and I’ve edited the post now. The free shipping threshold is USD$50 (after any discounts) for Canada & US deliveries. It’s been that for at least the past 8 years. (Yeah, CA$65)
Well, Lupicia’s US branch (Hawaii) sent out an e-mail today stating they will no longer be stocking their Chinese-sourced teas (Ashmanra already posted the list of the teas in this forum, so I won’t be rehashing that here). But I expect this may sadly be the trend for a lot of US-based tea shops…
There might be some hope for Canadians seeking to import tea from the U.S. I really, really wanted the First Pluck Bi Luo Chun from Seven Cups, so I called Canada Border Services to ask about the tariffs. They said the 25% tariff only applies to products produced in the United States, not to products from other countries sold by American vendors. I asked specifically about Chinese tea and they said it should be exempt. If customs mistakenly charges duties, I can send the package back to be reassessed. I don’t know whether I’m about to make an expensive mistake, but I want this tea enough to try. Let me know if any of you have had American tea sent to Canada since this chaos started.
Courtney, it would be great to hear your experience if you end up placing the order. I’m not sure if tea blends count as American products. You might want to call CBSA and ask if you’re worried about the duties.
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