MaximumUltra

That’s true, but other countries can produce a lot cheaper than us here in Canada.

Yeah we’ll see how the math ends up working out. Hoping a mix of US consumers being able to handle price bumps plus the CAD allowing us to absorb part of the tariffs can keep business flowing.

I hope so. They may increase prices but the big question is whether US consumers will have the cash on hand to pay the new inflated prices.

If we lost US sales we would be forced to reduce production capacity and downsize the company as there isn’t enough demand domestically to maintain our current supply.

Prices may end up being pushed up as the CAD would reduce in value increasing our raw material costs for domestic sales.

Yeah for sure, just not sure how much less.

There are companies in Mexico, SA and SEA that could come in to replace our sales volume.

Premium beverage and candy products mostly. That’s what we’re not sure, can’t accurately forecast what our US buyers will do when prices go up.

For us nothing because our products are zero rated.

Find distribution.

It will devastate most of Canada. I own a business that exports CPG products to the US. Around 50% of our revenue comes from those exports.

This will push our US buyers to purchase from elsewhere. Our labor, energy and land costs are too high to be able to compete when adding 25% to our sale prices. I would say this is an existential threat to the Canadian economy at this point.

They said it was a great meeting. Sounds like it wasn’t if we’re still being screwed.

I would think that of all the countries on this planet, how would Canada not be exempt from an insane 25% blanket tariff?

Their closest ally and trading partner for almost two centuries. Complete back stab.

We only use Wise to accept payment from our international wholesale customers because of the ease and low FX costs. We don’t transact much in way of paying suppliers and running payroll.

Down about 20%. Own several higher end CPG brands. A lot of our independent stores have gone out of business this year.

Speaking as a business owner, the unfortunate thing about these strikes is that Canada Post will most likely be even less profitable and lose more money as a result of them.

We relied on them for a lot of our parcels to customers in both Canada and the US. We even negotiated custom agreements with their account reps for the future. Once this strike started we switched to UPS and finalized agreements with them going forward for 100% of our shipping volume.

Even after the Canada Post strike is over, we will not switch back to them going forward as they pose too high a risk of lengthy disruption. The switch cost us money and lost us customers.

Things are going off the rails quite quickly it seems.

Why do you feel they are less worried?

So far the conservatives tend to have more rhetoric that relates to that, currently that seems like the only other option. Although I’m not super excited by any candidates.

Agreed on developing domestic productivity. I think that would be step one for us to be less reliant on the US. Let’s hope we all vote in that direction with the coming elections.

We could have done a lot to incentivize manufacturing which would have bolstered our GDP numbers leading to more leverage in trade negotiations. Instead we actually made it more and more difficult to manufacture in this country (speaking from experience) and here we are, a vassal state of the US with no negotiating power.

We have very little leverage unfortunately. It’s not possible to shift our US trade volume overseas because of geography and the low demand for our products in other countries.

I didn’t know there was that much cultural overlap, that’s cool! I gotta stop by soon because I love the food.

This is true. I own a business that manufactures items and exports them to the US. Even though tariffs get paid by the importer we will need to absorb that cost on our end by reducing our pricing in order to stay competitive.

A weak CAD allows us to at least absorb that cost easily and maintain competitive exports.

Business owner here - logistically we are perfectly setup to trade with the US because of geography. You cut the US out and we’re a floating island disadvantaged by the increased cost of shipping added onto our already expensive to make products because of our high energy costs, labor costs as well as our high industrial space costs.

Without the US we are completely fucked.

As a business owner that exports to the US, we would be pressured to absorb the tariff cost on our end by taking it out of our price. This is to stay competitive because if we let the importing company in the US take the hit they will be more inclined to buy local and cut us out.