When trade talks collapsed over the weekend, politicians slapped massive 50% tariffs on each other’s goods. Now, the people actually running the shops and making the products are the ones paying the price.
You spend decades building a small business. You find your niche, you build relationships across the border, and you plan your inventory months in advance. Then, over a single weekend, politicians start a trade war, and suddenly your life’s work is on the chopping block.
That is the reality for shop owners in the US and Canada right now. After trade talks completely fell apart, American and Canadian leaders slapped 50% tariffs on each other’s products.
For Cindy Baldassi, who runs a jewelry business called CindyLouWho2 in Calgary, the math is brutal. Americans buy 75% of her stone and glass pieces. To survive the new US tariffs, she would have to raise her prices by half.
“It’s quite likely that it will wipe out most of my US sales,” Baldassi said. “I expect that at least half of my business will be gone.”
The tariffs hit hard and fast. US taxes on Canadian wine, clothing, and hockey equipment started on Saturday. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised matching tariffs on American steel, electronics, and dairy starting September 8.
For small business owners, the lack of warning is the killer.
Matteo Sgaramella runs a menswear brand in Toronto. His American clients ordered clothes back in January. Those shipments are arriving now, right into the teeth of a 50% tax. If he tells his buyers they suddenly owe a massive extra bill to the shipping company, they will refuse the delivery.
“Big business can, you know, always find a way… but small businesses are going to get smashed by this,” Sgaramella said.
The pain goes both ways. In Portland, Oregon, Mike Roach and Kim Osgood run a clothing store called Paloma Clothing. Their best-selling gift items are pillows designed locally but manufactured in Montreal. A pillow that normally retails for $59 will now cost them enough to push the price up to $90.
“It would be one thing if we had three months’ notice… but when it happens literally overnight you’re really stuck,” Roach said.
It is not just about taxes. It is about hurt feelings and boycotts.
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Heather Seevers runs a craft shop in Bellingham, Washington, just 25 minutes from the Canadian border. Her Canadian customers have dropped by 20%. Some even emailed her to say they would not cross the border to shop because of the harsh anti-Canadian rhetoric coming from the White House, including talk of Canada becoming the 51st state.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Seevers said. “It’s going to take years and years and years to get a relationship back with Canada, and I think these new tariffs are digging us deeper into a hole.”
The politicians are busy drawing lines on a map and fighting over trade deals. But down on the ground, the people who actually make the pillows, pour the wine, and string the beads are just trying to figure out how to keep the lights on.
