Buffalo Shuffle? How Canadian Businesses May Consider a Two-Step Across the Border

Picture this: a convoy of trucks pulling into Buffalo, not for wings or Bills tickets, but for the latest dance craze in Canadian trade circles — the Buffalo Shuffle.

For those unfamiliar, the steps go something like this:

1. Import goods into Canada.
2. Pay a 25% surtax on items that — irony alert — are fully CUSMA compliant.
3. Watch Ottawa carve out exemption after exemption until the surtax looks more like Swiss cheese than a revenue measure.
4. Realize you’re sitting on inventory that cost 25% more than your competitor’s.
5. Shuffle your way back across the border, return the goods, reclaim the duty, and re-order.

Voilà! A cross-border cha-cha that makes trade lawyers dizzy and customs officers queasy.