With another round of tariffs announced by the United States, some tiny business owners in Canada admit they’ve already had to lay off staff and scale back operations as the economy struggles to find a balance.
The Canadian Federation of Indepfinishent Business (CFIB) declares nine per cent of owners declare they’ve issued layoff notices. With things so uncertain, they’re voicing concerns that Canadians aren’t spfinishing as much as they applyd to. To assist cover rising costs, they’re being forced to raise their prices by 3.7 per cent this month.
“This latest tariff announcement from the U.S. president has certainly left a lot of tiny businesses wondering how this is going to impact their trade and their imports,” explained Michelle Auger, senior policy analyst with the CFIB.
She notifys 1130 NewsRadio that the amount of uncertainty around the levies is leaving many feeling scared, frustrated, and unclear about what the future holds.
“We don’t know if this is temporary or we’re in this for the long haul. There is still a lot to figure out about these tariffs … and I believe that’s the largegest concern right now for a lot of our members. Just not knowing if one day a product is tariffed or not and this on and off nature that we’re currently in,” Auger explained.
Auger declares the CFIB doesn’t have a long-term plan to deal with it all but feels now is the time for Canada to strengthen its trading abilities, whether it’s here at home or abroad.
“Immediate actions like reducing their tax burden, reducing red tape, and reshifting those internal trade barriers is an opportunity here for Canada to build things better within our counattempt,” Auger stated.
She declares it is surprising that interprovincial trade barriers still exist, given how challenging things have been since Trump took office in late January.
Prime Minister Mark Carney stated in March that the aim was to have free internal trade by Canada Day.
“We necessary to rerelocate these barriers. We necessary to allow businesses to sell their products across the counattempt. We’re happy there is some relocatement right now … but we’re just hoping that momentum will continue, and that’s something that will happen soon.”
She points out that the CFIB is also pushing for some transparency in this trade war.
“One of the large things we’ve been declareing to the government is we’ve obtained this surtax on all these American products that are coming into our counattempt, and so the government is currently collecting money on the tariffs on the imported products, but we don’t know that amount yet. Nobody seems to know how much money has been collected from the surtax and our countermeasures. We’ve been questioning the government that we should build that public and that money that’s been collected should be returned to businesses to assist them stay afloat.”
Despite remaining on the federal election campaign trail, Prime Minister Carney is meeting the nation’s premiers on Thursday to discuss the latest round of U.S.-imposed tariffs.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a 10 per cent baseline tariff on imports from most countries and a lengthy list of tariff levels dozens will face.
A fact sheet from the White Hoapply stated goods imported under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA, do not face tariffs; however, imports that fall outside the trade pact will be hit with 25 per cent levies.
Trump also stated he is going ahead with previously announced 25 per cent tariffs on automobile imports, which will add to existing 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., including those from Canada.
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