Canadian businesses are becoming increasingly confused and anxious as U.S. President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated Saturday tariff announcement looms.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump reiterated to a group of reporters in the Oval Office that he would follow through on his threat to announce broad-based, 25-per-cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, saying tariffs could “rise with time.”
Just a day earlier, however, Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, suggested there could be no tariffs if Canada acted “swiftly” to improve border security measures. He also said wider-ranging tariffs could come after April 1, the deadline for U.S. officials to deliver a report to Trump with policy recommendations.
“Even with (Trump’s) statements hours before … the tariffs would be imposed, it is just so hard, given his style, to know how serious this is,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Kelly said it’s been difficult to give small business owners advice on what steps they can take to prepare for undecided tariffs, adding that some businesses have been stocking up on products from the U.S. in case there are retaliatory measures from Canada.
Fears around tariffs are already hurting economies on both sides of the border, said Matthew Holmes, public policy chief at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s creating tremendous anxiety for the business community,” he said. “After a really awful few years for businesses around the world, this is just adding insult to injury.”
Some business leaders in the Greater Toronto Area have been urging Canada to retaliate immediately after an official announcement, said Giles Gherson, CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
He said investors are growing concerned about large manufacturing projects that have been announced or are underway in Ontario, with some threatening to freeze or cancel them altogether.
“If American public opinion, if decision-makers in the States, if CEOs that have influence in Washington, don’t really realize what’s going on and they’re not feeling any pain, we’re not going to get this resolved quickly and it’s going to do a lot of damage.”
Other executives have been meeting with their American counterparts to lobby against the tariffs, which would impact consumers south of the border by making goods more expensive.
Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), recently met with hundreds of farmers and executives at the American Farm Bureau Convention in San Antonio, Texas, where tariffs dominated many conversations and there were a mix of emotions.
“They were very nervous, much like we are, that they’re going to be negatively impacted long term,” Currie told the Star.
Over half of Canada’s agri-food imports come from the U.S., while 60 per cent of Canada’s agri-food exports head south, according to the CFA.
At the same time, Currie said, U.S. executives are concerned about “lobbying correctly” with the president. “People were optimistic that by giving that April date, maybe everyone (has) a chance to summarize what the potential impact of putting those tariffs on products would do.”
Asked what he thinks Trump will do on Saturday, he said, “I wish I had a crystal ball. My guess is that he will announce probably what (goods) he’s going to put tariffs on.”
With files from Josh Rubin
