Manufacturer’s agent — Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec

Tariff-Free Lighting Manufacturers

Most of what we represent is made outside the United States. Where a line is exposed, we’ll tell you before it reaches your schedule, not after the quote comes back.

Send us your fixture schedule

What changed, and what it means for a schedule

Canada applies a 50 per cent counter-tariff to US-origin luminaires coming into the country, and luminaire parts carry 25 per cent under an earlier order.

The practical version: a fixture made in the United States carries that duty when it crosses the border. A comparable fixture made in Canada, Europe or Asia doesn’t. Of the more than ninety lines we track, twenty-three carry the duty today. A handful more are US-made and still land clean, because the manufacturer’s own Canadian arm brings them in. Who imports a fixture decides whether the duty reaches your schedule. The brand name never settles it. For everything else, the answer is either “not affected” or “let us confirm it before it goes on the schedule”.

These lists move. We re-check this page every month against the United States Surtax Order and the Canada Border Services Agency’s customs notices. If it bears on a live bid, ask us rather than trusting the figures above.

What we do about it

01

Confirm the origin

We check where the product on your schedule is actually made — not where the brand keeps its head office.

02

Put an alternative beside it

Where a line is exposed, there is usually a comparable fixture on our card that is not. We’ll show you both.

03

Get it in writing

Country of origin and tariff classification come from the manufacturer, and we pass them to you with the quote.

04

Watch the list

These schedules change often, and with little notice. We track them so a specification is not overtaken between design and order.

Town hall at Kinaxis headquarters — tiered seating beneath a faceted timber origami ceiling with 3G Lighting downlights set into the facets.See the Canadian-made lines

3G Lighting — Kinaxis headquarters, Kanata

The Canadian answer, and the wider one

Twenty-one lines on our card are Canadian manufacturers, and origin is not their only advantage. On an Ontario public-sector project, Canadian content is now a question your bid documents may make you answer.

Beyond those, the card runs deep into European and Asian manufacture. Neither is touched by these orders. Tell us which lines are on your drawings and we’ll confirm each one.

Duty follows origin, not the brand name

Duty is assessed on country of origin and tariff classification at the point of import — not on where a brand is headquartered. A US brand manufacturing in Mexico is not caught by these orders. A European brand with a US plant is.

That distinction is the whole job. It’s why a list of brand names is a starting point rather than an answer. We get the origin and the classification from the manufacturer and pass them to you with the quote, so your estimator is working from the same facts we are.

Liteline Sigma2 recessed downlights over the meeting-room table at Forest and Nature School, Ottawa, with forest views.See the project

Liteline — Forest and Nature School, Ottawa

Good to know before you specify

We are not customs advisors, and this page is not a duty ruling. Final duty is determined by the importer of record against the tariff classification and origin of the specific goods. What we can do is tell you where a product is made and get that confirmed by the manufacturer in writing.

Origin can also vary within a brand. A manufacturer may build one range domestically and another offshore, so we confirm at the level of the product on your schedule, not the name on the front of the catalogue.

Tell us the lines on your schedule

Send the fixture schedule and we’ll tell you where each line is made, and what the counter-tariff changes about it. Often the answer is nothing.

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Related: All the lines we represent · Canadian-made brands · Our line card · Our services