- Megan Giles Cooney | Columnist
- In Canada recently for a family gathering, I had the opportunity to talk with people and observe the impact of the U.S.-Canada trade war, one year in.
Bottom line: The back and forth tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and then retaliated against by Canada have clearly altered consumer habits north of the U.S. border.
When in Ontario a year ago, after the initial U.S. tariffs, attitudes toward America’s government and our trade policy were upsetting to most Canadians.
Today, there seems greater acceptance and a process of acclimating to the reality of the mutual trade fissure. Here are a few examples.
Waiters announce no U.S. products are served in restaurants, at least in Montreal. Liquor stores run by Canada’s Liquor Control Board no longer stock U.S. brands.
In December, some Canadian provinces held auctions to unload their U.S. tariffed booze, proceeds going to charities. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported popular tourist provinces Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland donated proceeds from their in-store draw down to food banks.
But are people buying the leftovers? A friend in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over Christmas said to his surprise, the remains of U.S. spirits were not moving.
Unfortunately, for U.S. farmers, there is no such stockpile for agriculture products. In Michigan, a Canadian border neighbor, The Washington Post reported American “wheat exports fell about 89%, cherries about 62%, soybeans about 46% — indicating tariff-related export decline.”
This column doesn’t even mention the economic losses in the automotive, steel and construction goods sectors. They are reportedly enormous, with no end in sight.
Last month at the global economic conference in Davos, Switzerland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country is taking “the world as it is, not wait around for a world as we wish it to be.”
That includes new trade partnerships, including Canada’s discussion of a possible major trade deal with China despite President Trump’s threat of 100 % tariffs on Canadian imports.
Canadians, meanwhile, continue to shake their heads in amazement that the U.S. would punish its closest trading partner. They shun American products and do less cross-border travel.
Canada first vs. America first. Only time will tell if the widely used economics idiom that no one wins a trade war is true now as it has been in the past.
Megan Giles Cooney is a columnist for the Traverse City (MI) Record-Eagle. Reach her atmegangilescooney@gmail.com
