{"id":266262,"date":"2026-01-31T00:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/266262\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:30:07","slug":"tariffs-are-hurting-u-s-manufacturing-sector-economist-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/266262\/","title":{"rendered":"Tariffs are hurting U.S. manufacturing sector, economist warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chief Economist for the Conference Board of Canada Pedro Antunes reacts to the GDP being unchanged in November 2025. <\/p>\n

Tariffs are a lose-lose situation for Canada\u2019s and the United States\u2019 manufacturing sector, says a chief economist. <\/p>\n

His comments come after Statistics Canada released its November GDP data<\/a> on Friday pointing to a soft fourth quarter, with the manufacturing sector dragging on the economy after posting a 1.3 per cent decline.<\/p>\n

A global shortage of microchips stalled production at a major Canadian auto plant, by 6.4 per cent, creating a \u201cbottleneck\u201d for vehicle and parts output, the agency said. <\/p>\n

While Canada\u2019s manufacturing sector is already under pressure from ongoing trade tensions, the fallout is not confined to Canada alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tariffs are not going to allow for the U.S. to be any more competitive,\u201d Pedro Antunes, chief economist at Signal49 Research, told BNN Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, they\u2019re hurting our competitiveness North America wide when we think about our positioning on the global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antunes said when the U.S. applies tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, or auto-related products, the impact extends beyond a single product or sector.<\/p>\n

Those materials often cross the border multiple times and frequently return to Canada because of the intricate, intertwined supply chains the two countries have built over decades, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problems extend just beyond those segments that are specifically hit by tariffs,\u201d said Antunes.<\/p>\n

Antunes added that uncertainty around the tariff dispute is already weighing on hiring, investment, and consumer confidence within Canada\u2019s manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things are just suggesting a very lethargic economy, no matter which industries you\u2019re really focused on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trade deal an \u2018absolute necessity\u2019 for auto sector<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Antunes said the outlook for the manufacturing sector remains weak, with Statistics Canada signalling just a 0.1 per cent increase in GDP for December.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that tells us is, essentially, the economy is flat,\u201d said Antunes.<\/p>\n

He warned the auto sector will remain under pressure without a resolution to trade tensions with the U.S., noting that about 85 per cent of Canadian manufacturing is destined for the American market.<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 workers were laid off at General Motors\u2019 Oshawa plant<\/a>. The union representing the workers stated that these layoffs resulted from the company shifting jobs to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have free access, and if we have tariffs at 25 per cent on Canadian content, that is not going to alleviate the situation anytime soon,\u201d Antunes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it likely is going to continue to get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Canada has secured smaller trade wins, including a recent agreement with China that benefits the agriculture sector, Antunes said those deals are not enough to offset restricted access to the U.S. market, which still accounts for roughly three-quarters of Canada\u2019s total trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trade deal is an absolute necessity for the auto sector. We are hopeful that we\u2019ll see some signs or some settlement of a trade deal, but we\u2019re not seeing that pan out in terms of increases until next year,\u201d said Antunes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chief Economist for the Conference Board of Canada Pedro Antunes reacts to the GDP being unchanged in November…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6772,114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-266262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}