Why importing into the US first before shipping to Canada is quietly costing brands double

I run a 3PL out of Toronto, and this comes up constantly with US brands shipping into Canada, so figured I'd lay out the actual math since I don't think most people running into this have sat down and done it.

Here's the pattern: a brand imports its goods into the US first, since that's where the business is based. Orders come in — DTC, wholesale, Amazon FBA, whatever — and a portion of that US inventory gets shipped north to fill Canadian orders as they come in.

Feels efficient. It's actually costing you at two separate points.

First cost — tariffs on goods that were never sold in the US. When your goods land in the US, you pay US tariffs on them, even though a chunk of that inventory is never actually sold to a US customer. It gets imported, tariffed, warehoused, and then re-exported north. You've paid a US import cost on product that was always headed to a Canadian buyer.

Second cost — freight, paid twice. That inventory sits in a US warehouse until a Canadian order comes in, then it ships again, this time across the border into Canada. That's two full freight legs to get one product to one customer — manufacturer to US, then US to Canada. Add customs brokerage fees on smaller, more frequent cross-border shipments and it adds up faster than people expect, especially if you're not shipping full pallets.

The fix, if you're already set up with a US warehouse and just re-routing a portion north: import directly from your manufacturer or country of origin into Canada instead, and use a Canadian 3PL to receive, prep, and ship from there. Works for DTC, wholesale, or FBA.

The part that surprises people is that this doesn't require a Canadian entity or branch office. In most cases you need three things: a 3PL partner in Canada, a CARM registration to import commercially, and a GST/HST number once your Canadian sales cross the CRA's threshold. Worth flagging — as of 2026, CARM tightened up, and non-resident importers now need their own registration directly instead of relying on a broker's number. That part trips people up if they haven't looked at it recently.

Curious if anyone else here has already made this switch — what actually took the longest to sort out, CARM, the GST/HST number, or just finding a 3PL in Canada that could actually receive direct?