{"id":817861,"date":"2026-07-22T04:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/817861\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T04:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:45:09","slug":"the-canadian-industries-set-to-be-most-affected-by-trumps-latest-tariff-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/817861\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canadian industries set to be most affected by Trump\u2019s latest tariff threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Power cable manufacturer Northern Cables’ production facility in Brockville, Ont., July 21. The Trump administration’s latest round of tariffs, invoked using Section 338 of the Depression-era Tariff Act, would directly override USMCA exemptions, an outcome Northern Cables’ president Todd Stafford says would be ‘devastating.’James Paddle-Grant\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The White House has ramped up its trade war with Canada by threatening tariffs on a seemingly esoteric list of goods that would deliver a serious blow to companies caught in the crosshairs, even if the broader impact on the country\u2019s economy should be limited.<\/p>\n

On Monday, President Donald Trump<\/a> issued a trio of executive orders imposing 50-per-cent tariffs on more than 500 categories of products<\/a>, ranging from larger sectors such as electronic equipment and furniture to a hodgepodge of products including hockey sticks, Canadian whisky and even some antiques. <\/p>\n

The tariffs, which are set to take effect on Aug. 19, would apply to roughly US$20-billion of imports from Canada, which represents roughly 5 per cent of Canada\u2019s shipments to the U.S. in 2025. <\/p>\n

From wine to whey to wigs, here are the Canadian goods targeted by Trump\u2019s new 50% tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a 50-per-cent tariff, which is pretty major. The microeconomic impacts are actually potentially quite severe,\u201d said Stuart Bergman, chief economist at Export Development Canada.<\/p>\n

The new duties, which Mr. Trump invoked using Section 338 of the Depression-era Tariff Act, would directly override the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement exemptions. When the Trump administration\u2019s emergency tariffs were in place, prior to being overturned by the U.S.\u2019s top court, more than 80 per cent of Canadian exports were shielded by USMCA. <\/p>\n

For manufacturers like Northern Cables Inc., a commercial and industrial power cable manufacturer based in Brockville, Ont., losing that protection would be \u201cdevastating,\u201d the company\u2019s president Todd Stafford said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 30 days, so it could change 15 times, but as written now, that\u2019s probably half our business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If the tariffs do go through as threatened, however, the only alternative for the company would be to open a manufacturing facility in the U.S., he said. Northern Cables currently operates all three of its manufacturing facilities in Ontario, but has several warehouses spread across the U.S. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe could probably get some form of operation in probably nine to 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the electrical equipment and electronics sector, one of the industries hardest hit by the tariffs, companies are scrambling to quantify the potential damage. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As an industry, 90 per cent of the sector\u2019s exports go to the U.S., said Cherith Sinasac, director of government affairs for Electro-Federation Canada, a trade group representing hundreds of electrical and automation companies.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pattern across many of the sectors targeted this week, EDC\u2019s Mr. Bergman said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe industries that were chosen are among some of the industries that have the highest U.S. market concentration. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s by accident,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At Durham Furniture Inc., a manufacturer of solid wood bedroom furniture northwest of Toronto, Luke Simpson, the company\u2019s president, is taking a wait-and-see approach to the new tariffs because of the history of Mr. Trump\u2019s on-again, off-again threats since the start of 2025. <\/p>\n

Still, on Tuesday he fielded an anxious call from one U.S. customer set to take delivery of products for its showroom later next month asking if it should cancel its order in light of the tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assume it\u2019s a negotiating tactic but no one has any idea what is going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThe uncertainty of it means how do you possibly add new customers?\u201d<\/p>\n

A swath of the furniture industry was already reeling from Section 232 tariffs targeting U.S. imports of cabinets, said Gilles Pelletier, president and chief executive officer of the Quebec Furniture Manufacturer\u2019s Association, so a 50-per-cent tariff on other furniture products \u201cis pretty much an embargo,\u201d he said. If the tariffs do take effect, those furniture products would \u201cget more tariffs than China or Vietnam, which is ridiculous.\u201d <\/p>\n

One aspect of the new tariffs that makes them so damaging is that they generally target small and medium-sized exporters, a segment that accounts for roughly two-thirds of private sector jobs in Canada.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Cheekbone Beauty founder and CEO Jenn Harper. ‘As a small business we have a lot less room to absorb something like this,’ she says.Courtney Michaud\/Supplied<\/p>\n

At Cheekbone Beauty, Canada\u2019s first Indigenous-owned cosmetics brand, founder and CEO Jenn Harper said she was caught off guard by the new tariffs, which would include lipstick, eye-makeup and other cosmetics. <\/p>\n

While the St. Catharines, Ont.-based company has about a dozen full-time and contract employees, it has made big inroads into the U.S. market, including a deal to carry its products in close to 150 JCPenney stores. Roughly one-quarter of its e-commerce sales are also to the U.S.<\/p>\n

The company was already absorbing some tariffs on Italian-made goods it sold in the U.S., \u201cbut at 50 per cent that\u2019s too much for us,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a small business we have a lot less room to absorb something like this.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the other end of the business-size scale, Vancouver-based mining giant Teck Resources Ltd. could be caught up in the new tariffs, though the impact will be minimal through tariffs on refined lead. <\/p>\n

Opinion: There is no appeasing Donald Trump, or deterring him<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, Canada exported US$224-million of the product to the U.S., but in a statement Sarah Payne, a spokesperson for the company, said refined lead sales account for only 2 per cent of the company\u2019s revenue. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not currently anticipate a material impact as a result of tariffs,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

The new tariffs are also set to impact a broad range of Canadian forest products.<\/p>\n

The sector already faces significant trade barriers in the U.S., including long-standing duties on softwood lumber and more recent Section 232 tariffs. Expanding the tariffs is deeply disappointing, Derek Nighbor, president and CEO of Forest Products Association of Canada and the Canadian Wood Council said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cForest sector workers and communities across Canada have been dealing with escalating and unnecessary U.S. trade actions for far too long and it continues to hurt Canadian and American families alike,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Playing defence didn\u2019t protect Canada from Trump\u2019s latest tariffs. It\u2019s time to move into the offensive zone<\/a><\/p>\n

While the targeted nature of the tariffs would minimize the impact on the broader Canadian economy, economists said it would still leave its mark. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf these tariffs are kept in place permanently, real GDP growth could be about 0.1 percentage points lower in the long run,\u201d according to a report from economists at Desjardins. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u201cheightened uncertainty could dampen business confidence and curb investment plans,\u201d they wrote. <\/p>\n

With the 30-day window before the tariffs take effect, some companies are planning to move as many goods across the border as possible, a pattern that played out in the lead-up to Mr. Trump\u2019s first round of tariffs on Canada and Mexico in early 2025. <\/p>\n

Mr. Stafford, at Northern Cables, said that while his company will try to fill their U.S. warehouses with their finished goods before the new tariffs are implemented, his seven warehouses can only hold about two weeks\u2019 worth of manufacturing supply.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Mr. Stafford said the tariffs will force a temporary delay of hiring and capital spending plans, and the company will \u201cnot make any decisions until we see which way things are going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Power cable manufacturer Northern Cables’ production facility in Brockville, Ont., July 21. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-817861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}