Will the US-Canada commerce battle have an effect on your journey?

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Despite new tariffs and political tensions, the U.S.-Canada border stays open and journey prices are unlikely to see an instantaneous affect.

A commerce battle between the U.S. and Canada escalated this week after talks between the 2 nations collapsed.

President Donald Trump stated on Aug. 24 that he would double tariffs on vehicles and automotive elements imported from Canada to 50% on Jan. 1. The announcement got here days after 50% tariffs on round 5% of different Canadian items together with dairy, wine and hockey sticks took impact on Aug. 22. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney additionally stated Canada would implement retaliatory tariffs in September.

Travelers planning to go to America’s neighbor to the north could also be questioning what the heightened tensions imply for his or her journeys. The excellent news is, in all probability not a lot.

Here’s what to know.

Are the US-Canada borders nonetheless open?

Yes. The borders stay open and vacationers don’t want a visa for stays underneath 180 days, in accordance with the U.S. State Department.

U.S. residents can enter Canada utilizing their passport guide or card, or NEXUS card. The latter affords sooner processing for pre-screened vacationers, in accordance with Customs and Border Protection.

Will tariffs make my journey costlier? 

Not essentially. 

“There’s no direct causation I can see caused by this trade negotiation between the U.S. and Canada, because it’s mainly about the manufacturing goods and the agricultural goods,” Jungho Suh, Assistant Professor of Management within the Department of Management on the George Washington University School of Business, instructed USA TODAY.

He didn’t count on the latest escalation to have any direct affect on the price of journeys for U.S. vacationers. While Suh acknowledged “uncertainty” across the final result, he stated many corporations within the sector had ready themselves for “impactful macro external market environment change for multiple years since the post-pandemic era.”

“So the current negotiations between the U.S. and Canada, and the tariff issue, all these things are not new factors from the companies’ perspective,” he added.

The affect is totally on imported items, and “won’t matter too much” for the service sector.

Even if prices go comparatively unchanged, nonetheless, shopper sentiment has been impacted by the nations’ strained relationship – notably on the subject of inbound Canadian journey. Some Canadians are avoiding the U.S., citing causes together with Trump expressing curiosity in making Canada the 51st state and up to date detainments of vacationers.

The U.S. has had simply over 6.5 million customer arrivals from Canada this 12 months as of May, down 9.3% 12 months over 12 months, in accordance with the Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office. There had been roughly 4.2 million fewer customer arrivals from Canada in all of 2025 in contrast with the earlier 12 months, a 20.9% drop.

U.S. outbound customer departures to Canada, in the meantime, had been down 4.7% in 2025 at 13.4 million, the primary decline since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started, in accordance with information the International Trade Administration beforehand shared with USA TODAY.

Nathan Diller is a shopper journey reporter for USA TODAY primarily based in Nashville. You can attain him at ndiller@usatoday.com.