EDMONTON — Business associations on both sides of the border are sounding the alarm over the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's incoming tariffs on the North American economy.
Trump is putting a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods and a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy starting Tuesday, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will hit back with counter-tariffs starting the same day.
The Residential Construction Council of Ontario condemned Trump’s tariffs, saying they will affect billions of dollars of trade in construction materials alone.
“The move is reckless and will cause economic hardship in both the U.S. and Canada,” president Richard Lyall said in a statement Sunday.
“Our countries and supply chains are intertwined and dependent on each other, so nobody wins in a tariff war,” he said.
Lyall said the promised tariffs are much more significant than the tariffs that were imposed by the previous Trump administration in March 2018 on certain imports of steel and aluminum from Canada.
The council president said these tariffs will hike costs and cause a further slowdown in residential construction, which will “exacerbate an already dire housing affordability crisis.”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president John Murphy said Trump's tariffs are unprecedented, will upend supply chains and will only raise prices for American families.
Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Candace Laing said the incoming tariffs are "profoundly disturbing" and will drastically increase the cost of everything for everyone, hurting families, communities and businesses.
The Canadian Chamber has estimated that a 25 per cent tariff across the board could cost Canadian households an average of $1,900 per year.
Giles Gherson, President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, said in a statement Sunday that Trump's pretext for an "all-out trade war" has no basis in reality and will harm residents on both sides of the border.
"This completely unjustified attack on Canada will trigger severe economic disruption to our $3-trillion economy and cause painful supplier shortages and higher costs for Americans," Gherson said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Saturday night that Canada will retaliate with 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods, including alcohol, furniture and natural resources.
The government announced the full list of items covered by tariffs starting on Tuesday, with $30 billion of goods covered in the first phase of the retaliation. These include beverages, cosmetics and paper products.
After 21 days, another group of products worth $125 billion will be subject to tariffs. The full list will be available in the coming days, but will include passenger vehicles, trucks and buses, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, aerospace products, beef, pork and dairy products, the government said.
The government also said it is launching a process for Canadian businesses to request exceptional relief from the retaliatory tariffs.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is concerned about how the more than 190,000 family farms it represents will be impacted.
The agriculture sectors in Canada and the U.S. rely on each other to buy and sell one another's products and the fertilizer used to grow food, said the CFA's president Keith Currie in a statement.
"No one wins in a trade dispute between Canada and the U.S. except for our competitors around the world," said Currie, adding tariffs are simply "bad business."
Chris Davison, the president and CEO of the Canola Council of Canada, said in a statement the tariffs will have "devastating impacts on farmers, input providers, canola crushing activities and exports of canola seed, oil and meal.”
The U.S. is Canada’s biggest market for canola exports, with export value in 2023 hitting $8.6 billion, including almost 3 million metric tonnes of canola oil valued at $6.3 billion and more than 3.5 metric tonnes of canola meal valued at $2.0 billion, according to the council.
Similar disappointment came from the president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, who said the tariffs will cause harm on both sides of the border, and will particularly hurt the U.S. as it works to rebuild after recent natural disasters.
"The United States can only meet about 70% of its own needs — not considering the need to build even more affordable housing for American families and to urgently rebuild communities in North Carolina hit hard by Hurricane Helen and those around Los Angeles recently devastated by fires," Derek Nighbor said in a statement.
"These tariffs will drive up costs and complicate recovery."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2025.
The Canadian Press
