Tariff Check

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Are electronics tariffed in Canada?

Phones, networking gear and screens. Each of the 5 entries below is checked item by item against the Department of Finance list of 648 U.S. products subject to Canada's counter-tariffs, in force since September 8, 2026. Rates as of September 10, 2026.

A US brand is not the same thing as a US-origin good. These surtaxes apply to goods by country of origin. They do not apply to companies. An American brand manufacturing in Mexico is not covered; a German or Korean brand manufacturing in Tennessee is.

How to read the labels
Made in Canada
Manufactured in Canada.
Not US-made
Made outside the United States, so outside these tariffs, but not Canadian-made. Still a valid answer, just not the same answer.
Depends on the model
The brand builds the same product in more than one country, including the US. The unit in the box decides.
Origin unconfirmed
Where it is manufactured could not be established.
Confirmed by the maker
The manufacturer states it on their own site or in their own press material.
Reported by a third party
Someone credible says so, or the maker claims it in general terms without specifics.
Not verified
Recorded as an absence of evidence. Shown rather than hidden, because a directory that quietly guesses is worse than one that admits the gap.

Electronics

Phones, networking gear and screens.

Electronics

Smartphones

Smartphones sit in the top 50% band, on a tariff item that names them explicitly.

Telephone sets, including smartphones and other telephones for cellular networks

50%
Tariff item behind this rate (1)
  • 8517.13.0050%Telephone sets, including smartphones and other telephones for cellular networks or for other wireless networks: Smartphones

What people get wrong

This is the clearest case on the site where a frightening headline rate should not change what you buy. Essentially no smartphone sold in Canada is US-origin: iPhones are assembled in China and India, Samsung in Vietnam, Korea and India, Google Pixel in Vietnam and India. Apple and Google are American companies making non-American goods, and the surtax follows the factory, not the head office.

Work out what this adds to a purchase

What to buy instead
  • Apple, Samsung, Google and most others

    Mainstream smartphones

    No source on file · last looked at 2026-08-25

    Not US-madeNot verified

    Where it is made: China, India, Vietnam, South Korea

    Listed as context rather than a recommendation. No individual model origin was verified, and phone assembly moves between countries constantly. If it matters to you, the origin marking on the box is the answer.

Electronics

Routers, switches and networking gear

Networking equipment sits in the top 50% band, which is the largest realistic electronics exposure for households and small businesses.

Machines for the reception, conversion and transmission of voice, images or other data, including switching and routing apparatus

50%
Tariff item behind this rate (1)
  • 8517.62.0050%Machines for the reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data, including switching and routing apparatus

What people get wrong

Enterprise networking has more US production than consumer gear does, so business buyers are more exposed than home users. There is no Canadian consumer router manufacturer.

Work out what this adds to a purchase

What to buy instead
  • MikroTik

    Routers and switches

    Source: servethehome.com · checked 2026-08-25

    Not US-madeReported by a third party

    Where it is made: Latvia

    Latvian company, popular with technical users, with a steep learning curve. ServeTheHome visited the Riga offices and a Latvian contract manufacturing line building MikroTik products. MikroTik publishes no plant list of its own, so this is a third-party account rather than the maker's statement, and it does not establish that every line is built there. Nobody claims US production.

    Visit MikroTik

  • TP-Link

    Home routers and mesh systems

    Source: tp-link.com · checked 2026-08-25

    Not US-madeReported by a third party

    Where it is made: Vietnam and China

    TP-Link states it builds routers in its own facility in Vietnam. Texas sued in February 2026 alleging the Vietnamese sites do final assembly only, with effectively all components arriving from China. Marked reported rather than verified for that reason: the maker's own origin claim is under active legal challenge. Both accounts still put production outside the United States, which is the only question these tariffs ask. TP-Link also faces separate US security scrutiny, which is a different question again and worth your own reading before buying.

    Visit TP-Link

Electronics

Laptops and computers, and why they are not tariffed

Nothing, and the completeness of that is the point. Heading 84.71 is automatic data processing machines - laptops, desktops, tablets, servers, keyboards, mice and storage drives - and it does not appear anywhere in the 648 items. Neither does 84.73, which is parts and accessories for those machines. Neither does 84.43, which is printers and multifunction devices. Neither does 85.04, which is where power supplies and laptop chargers sit. Neither does 85.42, semiconductors. A US-assembled laptop, its charger, its dock, its replacement battery and the printer next to it are all outside this measure. Then set that against the entry on this site for monitors. A computer monitor without a television tuner is item 8528.59.90 and it is in the top band at 50%. So the machine is untaxed and the screen you plug into it is surtaxed at fifty percent - and if that screen happens to contain a tuner it becomes a television at 8528.72, which is not on the list either. Three things on one desk, bought in one transaction, and the tariff treats them three different ways for reasons that have nothing to do with what they are for.

Automatic data processing machines and units thereof; parts and accessories; printers; power supplies; semiconductors

Not on the listThese goods do not appear on the official tariff-item list.

Why it is widely believed otherwise

Electronics was named as a targeted sector in the announcement, and a laptop is the most obvious electronic thing most people own. At least one published buyer guide told readers to buy laptops before September 8 to get ahead of the surtax. There is no surtax on laptops to get ahead of. What the list actually took out of consumer electronics is narrow and specific: smartphones at 8517.13.00, monitors at 8528.59.90, and game consoles at 9504.50.00. It left the computer, its parts, its charger, its printer and the chips inside all of them alone.

What people get wrong

There is no Canadian laptop manufacturer to point at, and this entry does not pretend otherwise. That matters less here than it would anywhere else on this site, because the tariff question has already been answered: none of these goods carry the surtax regardless of where they were assembled, so origin does not change what you pay. It is also worth knowing, as background rather than as a checked claim, that consumer laptop assembly is concentrated in Asia and Mexico rather than the United States - so the sector-level worry about laptops was likely misplaced twice over. The part of that this site can stand behind is the first part: the goods are not on the list. The one place origin still bites in this aisle is the monitor, which is on the list at 50% - see the monitors entry.

Work out what this adds to a purchase

No alternative is listed here yet. Nothing could be verified well enough to recommend, and a wrong answer would be worse than no answer.

Electronics

Monitors, and why TVs are not here

Computer monitors that do not include a TV tuner are in the top 50% band. Televisions are not on the list at all - tariff item 8528.72, reception apparatus for television, does not appear anywhere in it. Parts of television receivers and monitors are listed, at 25%.

Monitors not incorporating television reception apparatus; parts of television receivers

50%monitors, 25% parts
Tariff items behind this rate (3)
  • 8528.59.9050%Other monitors: Other: Other
  • 8529.90.3125%The following parts of television receivers (including video monitors and video projectors): video intermediate (IF) amplifying and detecting systems and similar
  • 8529.90.9025%Parts suitable for use solely or principally with the apparatus of headings 85,24 to 85,28: Other: Other

What people get wrong

This entry was renamed after the official list was read. It previously covered "TVs and monitors" at a soft 25-50%, on the strength of reporting that named electronics as a targeted sector. Only the monitor line is actually there. The distinction is worth keeping rather than deleting, because "are my TVs about to cost more" is one of the questions people arrive with, and the answer is no. Almost no televisions are manufactured in the United States in any case; North American TV assembly is concentrated in Mexico.

Work out what this adds to a purchase

What to buy instead
  • LG, Samsung, TCL, Hisense

    Televisions

    No source on file · last looked at 2026-08-25

    Not US-madeNot verified

    Where it is made: Mexico, South Korea, China

    Context, not a recommendation. Finished TVs sold in Canada are overwhelmingly not US-origin, and are not on the tariff list either way.

Electronics

Video game consoles, and why toys are not here

Video game consoles are in the top 50% band, on a tariff item that names them explicitly. Toys are not on the list at all - heading 9503, which covers toys of every kind, appears nowhere in the 648 items. Two aisles of the same shop, opposite answers.

Video game consoles and machines

50%
Tariff item behind this rate (1)
  • 9504.50.0050%Video game consoles and machines, other than those of subheading 9504,30

What people get wrong

This is the smartphone story a second time: an alarming headline rate on a category where essentially nothing sold in Canada is US-origin. Consoles are assembled by contract manufacturers in China and Vietnam, with some Japanese production, and no console is assembled in the United States. The 50% is real, and it should still not change which console you buy.

Work out what this adds to a purchase

What to buy instead
  • Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo

    Home and handheld consoles

    No source on file · last looked at 2026-08-26

    Not US-madeNot verified

    Where it is made: China, Vietnam and Japan

    Listed as context rather than a recommendation, on the same footing as the smartphones entry. Console assembly has been moving between China and Vietnam for several years and no manufacturer publishes a per-unit origin, so nothing here is verified at the model level. None of the three assembles in the United States. If it matters to you, the origin marking on the box is the answer.