For years, where your consumables were made was a trivia question. Interesting if you're the sort of person who reads the box, irrelevant to the purchase order.
That changed on September 8.
What actually happened
Canada's counter-tariffs came into force on September 8, 2026, covering roughly C$27.6 billion of U.S. imports across more than 600 product classifications. The rates are 15%, 25% or 50% depending on the specific item, matching the U.S. rate on the equivalent Canadian good. Steel and aluminum counter-tariffs went from 25% to 50%.
The targeted sectors include machinery and manufacturing inputs.
Here's the part that matters for anyone buying parts: the measures apply to goods originating in the United States, determined under Canada's country-of-origin marking rules. Not goods sold by an American company. Goods made in America.
Origin, not brand.
Why that's a harder question than it sounds
Most shops have never had to know where a consumable was made, so most shops don't.
A brand headquartered in one country may manufacture in several. A part can carry a familiar logo and come off a line on another continent. And the classification that determines exposure isn't the product name on the box — it's a tariff item number, and two things that look identical on a shelf can classify differently.
This is why every customs advisory on the current measures says the same thing: review the specific classification of each product rather than relying on broad category descriptions.
How to actually find out what you're exposed to
Three steps, and none of them require you to take anyone's word for it.
1. Ask your supplier for country of origin, in writing. Any legitimate supplier can produce this. It's on the customs documentation for every shipment they receive. If a supplier can't or won't tell you where a part was made, that's information too.
2. Get the tariff classification from your customs broker. They can tell you which tariff item your consumables fall under and whether it appears on the counter-tariff list. If you import directly, you're already working with one. If you buy domestically, your supplier's broker knows.
3. Check your last few invoices. If you've been buying imported parts through a distributor, surtax may already be flowing through in the landed cost without being broken out as a line. Ask.
That's an afternoon of work and it tells you your real exposure instead of your assumed one.
Where our parts come from
Thermacut's own plasma catalogue lists its headquarters and production in the Czech Republic, under THERMACUT, k.s. The company is part of ABICOR Binzel, a German group.
That's the manufacturer's published statement, not our characterisation of it — you can read it in their catalogue.
That matters right now for one specific, boring reason: European-origin goods sit outside the U.S. counter-tariff measures entirely. There's no surtax, because the surtax is keyed to U.S. origin.
Add to that the things that were already true — we price in Canadian dollars, we ship from Canada, and there's no cross-border brokerage on the way to you — and the cost picture is simply more predictable. Not cheaper by a percentage I'm going to wave around. More predictable, which for anyone building a quote three months out is often worth more.
If you need documented country of origin for a specific part — because your own customer requires it, or your compliance people do, or you just want it on file — ask us and we'll get it from the manufacturer. That's a normal request and it should be a normal answer.
And while we're talking about where money goes
I'll be straight about what is and isn't Canadian here, because this whole post is about origin and it would be cheap to get vague at the end.
The parts are not Canadian. They're made in Europe. I'm not going to wrap a Czech nozzle in a maple leaf and let you assume otherwise.
The business is. TorchandTip is Canadian-owned and Canadian-run, out of Alberta. We price in Canadian dollars, we ship from Canada, we pay Canadian taxes, and the margin on what you buy stays in this country and gets spent here.
That's a smaller claim than some of what you'll see right now, and it's one I can actually stand behind.
It also isn't nothing. A lot of what a Canadian shop buys passes through a Canadian address on its way from somewhere else to somewhere else, and none of the value stops here on the way through. If you're going to spend the money anyway — and you are, because the torch doesn't run without it — where the margin lands is a real choice, and it costs you nothing to make it deliberately.
Buy from whoever earns it. I'd just rather it be a Canadian business than not, and I'd guess you would too.
What I'm not claiming
I'm not going to tell you these parts perform identically to genuine. That's for you to see for yourself — the proof is in the pudding.
What I can document is where they're made and what they cost. Right now, for a Canadian shop, those two things have gotten considerably more interesting than they used to be.
Everything else, you judge off the cut face. That part hasn't changed.
Trade measures are moving quickly. This post reflects the situation as of September 2026 — confirm current rates and classifications with your customs broker before making purchasing decisions.
Need parts matched to your machine and amperage? Our guided finder walks you from your machine to the complete stack — in assembly order, with current pricing in Canadian dollars. Find your consumables →
TorchandTip.com sells Thermacut® aftermarket plasma and welding consumables across Canada. Thermacut® is an independent manufacturer. TorchandTip.com is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Hypertherm®, ESAB®, Lincoln Electric®, Kjellberg®, or any other original equipment manufacturer. All OEM names, model numbers, and part numbers are used for identification and reference purposes only.
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