Shipping Pottery from Canada to the US in 2025 : Tariffs, codes and carriers

Alright, September 2025 has been a tough month for everyone and we can safely say that coffee and tylenol kept us relatively sane jumping through the weird hoops of the current administration. We used to be able to simply drop our US bound pottery packages to Canada Post and then go make more, but that time’s now passed. I researched stuff extensively and successfully shipped my work to the USA for a week now, so nothing’s set in stone (you got it?) but I’m pretty sure this might help some of you fellow Canadian ceramic artists.

Shipping Art from Canada to the USA : an exception to tariffs for handmade art.

So we’re artists and ceramic artists, we work with our little hands on one of a kind stuff : good news ! We can ship to the USA without tariffs. Here is the article on CBP : Importing work of art. To be duty free, your art must be entirely executed by hand. This does not include commercial objects (ie industrial mug that’s handpainted does not work) that are modified. The thing must be entirely handmade. Which is perfect because my stuff is handmade from scratch so I can use the codes 9703900000 for sculpted figurines and pendants, as well as bowls and mugs that are handmade.

There are other Harmonization Codes that you can use for getting around tariffs. Some products are not tariff free, I’m currently researching information for shipping Washi Tape which is designed in Canada and the US, made in China, shipped back to the USA and Canada. The whole supply chain for small items like this is distrupted so it’s quite complicated, fortunately I’ll be making more stationery in Canada soon so it’ll sort itself out quickly 🙂

Shipping Pottery from Canada to the USA : the CUSMA treaty

Another way around tariffs is the CUSMA treaty : for some goods, including ceramics, if your materials are originated from North America, there are no tariffs. A cusma certificate is basically a form that you fill in with your information, certifying that you are the maker of your products and that your materials are from Canada, the USA etc. This must be approved by your carriers and or custom brokers. It will be provided to you by your carrier and might take several shapes depending on them. I used UPS with a CUSMA certificate and of 2 packages sent the exact same way, one went through and the other came back (reason : service disruption aka they have no idea).

Using a Canadian Carrier

Since Canada Post is using a third party AI based service + has a 35% extra tarif slapped on them on top of everything else, I cannot use them anymore. They’re also on a strike again as I write this piece so I have to go through with other carriers. That’s a shame imho because I love a public service but that’s straying from the subject here 🙂

I use ChitChats right now and shipped a dozen packages with them with no issues so far. They also operate in Canada so I will use them during the Canada Post Strike.

Their website is pretty clear and doesn’t need much explanation, they have videos and FAQs that you can read extensively.

Other carriers might work, I’ve heard of Freightcom and Stallion Express. I did not test them.

Conclusion

That’s it for today! I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out! I’ll happily add to this piece in order to make it even more helpful.