Selling into the US from Canada under CUSMA, which plan sections matter

What to take away

What CUSMA changes and what it does not change in your plan

CUSMA removed most tariffs on qualifying goods moving between Canada and the United States, but it did not remove the paperwork. Your plan still has to show that a product qualifies, who certifies it, and what happens when a shipment is held at the border.

The agreement also left Canadian domestic tax law alone. GST/HST on exports, input tax credits and the zero-rating rules sit in the Excise Tax Act, not in the trade agreement. A plan that treats CUSMA as a tax document will mislead the reader.

What changes in your plan is the level of proof. Under the old rules a certificate of origin was a prescribed form. Now certification can sit with the exporter, the producer or the importer, which means your plan must name the person who signs and the records they keep.

What does not change is the need for a market analysis that stands on its own. Tariff relief is not demand. A US buyer still has to want the product at a price your cost base supports, and that argument belongs in the plan before any duty table.

Sections that gain weight under CUSMA

Three sections carry more weight than they did under the previous agreement. The tariff and rules-of-origin section, the customs documentation section, and the market-entry section where you name distributors or agents.

A fourth, the export risk section, gains weight because origin claims can be audited years after the shipment. Verification risk is a real line item now, not a footnote.

Sections that do not change

Your ownership, management and incorporation details do not change because of CUSMA. Federal incorporation through Corporations Canada, your Canada Revenue Agency business number, and your provincial registration still read the same way in a plan.

Intellectual property strategy, filed through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, also reads the same. CUSMA did adjust some IP provisions, but the plan section describing your marks and patents still follows the same logic.

Tariff and rules-of-origin sections: citing CBSA Memorandum D11-4-3

The rules-of-origin section is where most Canadian export plans go soft. They assert that goods qualify without showing the test. Cite the actual authority and the section becomes checkable.

CBSA Memorandum D11-4-3 rules of origin sets out how origin is determined for the most-favoured-nation tariff. Use it to describe the tariff classification, the valuation method and the records that support a claim.

A worked example of an origin paragraph

Take a Winnipeg manufacturer of metal shelving selling into Minnesota. The plan paragraph names the tariff item, the regional value content test, the cost roll-up and the signing officer. It also states where the records are kept.

That paragraph is short, but every clause can be traced. A lender can ask for the cost roll-up. A border officer can ask for the certification. Neither has to guess.

Common origin mistakes in plans

Where the numbers come from

Origin calculations draw on your cost accounting, so the tariff section and the financial projections have to agree. If the plan claims a regional value content above the threshold, the cost build-up in the projections should show the same inputs.

Keep the tariff table to the products that matter. A plan with forty tariff lines reads as a customs manual. A plan with the five lines that carry most of the revenue reads as a business argument.

Customs, documentation and the Excise Tax Act context for exports

Customs documentation is an operational section, not a legal one. It should read as a sequence a new hire could follow in week one.

GST/HST and the Excise Tax Act

Exports of goods are generally zero-rated under the Excise Tax Act, which means you charge GST/HST at zero per cent and still claim input tax credits on your inputs. That treatment is a cash-flow advantage worth stating in the plan.

The conditions matter. You need proof of export, and the records have to stand up to review. Say in the plan which documents you keep as proof and who reconciles the zero-rated sales each filing period.

Documentation the plan should name

The commercial invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading or waybill, the origin certification, and the broker's entry summary. Name the party responsible for each, because "the team handles it" tells a reader nothing.

If you use a customs broker, name the broker and describe the service level. Broker error is a common cause of delay at the border, and a plan that ignores it looks naive.

A documentation table for the plan

Market-entry sections: distributors, agents and cross-border pricing

Market entry in the United States is a channel decision before it is a pricing decision. A distributor buys and resells. An agent sells on your behalf. The plan should say which model you chose and why the margin works.

Distributors take title, hold inventory and expect a discount that covers their cost of carrying stock. That discount is a real cost, so it belongs in the pricing build-up, not in a footnote about channel strategy.

Agents cost commission and give you more control over price and customer relationship. They also give you less control over effort. Say how you measure them and what happens if targets are missed.

Cross-border pricing

Price in US dollars and state the exchange rate assumption on the assumptions page. A plan that prices in Canadian dollars and converts silently hides the currency risk that a lender will look for anyway.

Landed cost is the number that matters to the buyer. Duty, freight, brokerage and any state taxes all sit between your ex-works price and the shelf. Show the build-up for one representative product.

The channel and pricing argument is where the market analysis and the sales and marketing plans meet. Keep the segment definition and the channel choice consistent across both.

Contract terms worth stating

Exclusivity, territory, term and termination. If you grant exclusivity to a US distributor, say for how long and what volume triggers renewal. Those terms are the difference between a channel and a hostage situation.

Export Development Canada and federal supports for export-oriented plans

Export Development Canada is the named federal source for export credit insurance, guarantees and financing. A plan that mentions EDC should say which product fits and what it covers.

Trade credit insurance protects against a US buyer who does not pay. For a small exporter selling on open account, that cover can be the difference between a bad debt and a bad year. Name the exposure and the cover.

EDC also offers guarantees that help a bank lend against receivables. If your plan asks for an operating line, say whether an EDC guarantee sits behind it. Lenders respond to that detail.

Other federal supports

The Canada-United States overview and federal supports page collects the federal programmes and trade contacts relevant to cross-border business. Use it to name supports rather than describe them generically.

Business Development Bank of Canada financing and advisory services sit alongside EDC for growth capital. Regional development agencies, FedDev Ontario, ACOA, PrairiesCan, PacifiCan and CanNor, fund market-entry work in their regions. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada runs programmes that touch export readiness.

How to write the supports section

The section is also where plans by industry conventions help. A manufacturer and a software firm draw on different programmes, and the plan should reflect the industry norm.

Provincial export pages and tariff-risk sections

Provincial pages give the regional detail that federal pages cannot. They also carry the tariff-response language that a lender in that province expects to see.

For Prairie exporters, the Province of Manitoba exporting page covers market-entry support and trade services relevant to selling into the US from Manitoba and the wider Prairies.

For Pacific exporters, B.C.'s response to unjustified U.S. tariffs sets out the province's position and the supports it put in place. That language belongs in the risk section of a British Columbia plan.

Regional differences that change the plan

Ontario and Quebec exporters sit close to dense US markets and lean on road freight. Alberta and the Prairies ship more by rail and pipeline-adjacent logistics. Atlantic Canada carries ferry and long-haul road costs. Northern exporters face air freight and seasonal access.

Quebec plans also carry language obligations. Bill 96 requirements from the Office québécois de la langue française affect labelling, contracts and customer documents, and a Quebec export plan should say how you comply.

A tariff-risk checklist for provincial sections

Building the export risk section a lender will accept

A lender reads the risk section to find out whether you understand your own exposure. Write it before the numbers, then let the numbers answer it.

The business plan risk section that lenders accept names the risk, sizes it, and states the mitigation and the trigger that tells you it is happening. Three lines per risk is usually enough.

The risks specific to selling into the US from Canada

Currency movement between the Canadian and US dollar. Border delay or a held shipment. Origin verification after the fact. Buyer default on open account. A change in US tariff or trade policy. Loss of a distributor.

Size each one. A currency move of a few cents against a thin margin is a different risk than a held shipment of a week. State the mitigation: hedging, safety stock, insurance, contract terms, a second channel.

Steps to write the section

The last step is the one that convinces. If insurance premiums, hedging costs and safety-stock carrying costs appear in the financial projections, the risk section and the numbers tell the same story.

What to leave out

Do not list risks you cannot mitigate and cannot size. Do not repeat the market analysis. Do not end with a paragraph about confidence. A lender wants the downside case stated plainly and answered, then the plan can move on.

Common questions