{"id":621463,"date":"2026-05-03T18:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T18:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621463\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T18:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T18:17:08","slug":"buy-canadian-has-caused-pain-in-parts-of-the-u-s-but-america-will-be-just-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621463\/","title":{"rendered":"Buy Canadian has caused pain in parts of the U.S., but America will be just fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Signage asking shoppers to buy local products on a storefront window in Montreal in November, 2025. Canadian spending on U.S. goods and services fell by tens of billions of dollars last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

There were the star-spangled boos, the shelves emptied of California pinot noir and Kentucky bourbon. There were the cancelled trips and the conferences relocated closer to home. There were counter-tariffs and government promises to find new markets. And there were decisions at the grocery store about which ketchup to buy and which dog food to leave on the shelf. <\/p>\n

For more than a year now, Canadians \u2212 at least, some of them \u2212 have fulminated against their closest international neighbour, eschewing U.S. goods and avoiding American vacation destinations.<\/p>\n

But what has it all amounted to? In the end, did any of it make a difference? Was any of it enough for Americans even to notice? Was there any measurable cost to the U.S. for the ruptures of the past year?<\/p>\n

Ford says majority government would bring certainty to trade talks<\/a><\/p>\n

Statistics collected by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis suggest the answer is yes \u2212 Canadian spending on U.S. goods and services fell last year by tens of billions of dollars. The figures show that, on average, between 2015 and 2024, Canadians bought up 17.8 per cent of U.S. goods exports and 7.7 per cent of its exported services. Last year, both figures declined, to 15.3 per cent and 7.3 per cent. <\/p>\n

The difference, relative to the longer-term average, amounts to nearly US$60-billion. <\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s share of U.S. goods exports has been in a period of relative decline \u2212 and, even in less fractious times, annual numbers move inconsistently. Those changes are also set against the colossus of American trade: In aggregate, the U.S. exported $3.4-trillion worth of goods and services last year. And some goods that would otherwise have gone to Canada have instead found other markets.<\/p>\n

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A store in downtown Toronto promotes the “Buy Canadian” initiative in March, 2025, as many consumers are eschewing U.S. goods in response to the Trump administration’s punitive tariffs.Andres Valenzuela\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the aggregate numbers offer a window into the scale of Canadian spending that is no longer being directed south of the border, a shift whose impact has become tangible not merely in the decline of cross-border visits but in spending \u2212 and jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the same as Iran saying, \u2018We\u2019re going to close the Strait of Hormuz.\u2019 That\u2019s a much bigger shock,\u201d said Andr\u00e9 Kurmann, a professor of economics at Drexel University in Philadelphia. But \u201cto the extent possible, Canada has retaliated a little bit economically, without any government policy of sorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadians flock to overseas travel as U.S. boycott deepens<\/a><\/p>\n

Using data from cellphone pings and a U.S. payroll provider, Prof. Kurmann and other researchers were able to calculate employment declines at small and medium-sized businesses in parts of the country that, in normal times, have the highest numbers of Canadian visitors. They calculated somewhere between 13,900 and 42,100 job losses.<\/p>\n

And that figure does not include the effect on larger businesses such as hotels, which have almost certainly seen additional cuts.<\/p>\n

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Trucks exit the assembly line at Toyota’s plant in San Antonio, Tex. Canada imported 94,148 fewer American-made cars last year, a 12-per-cent decline.Jordan Vonderhaar\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cFor these areas, our estimates suggest that there\u2019s sizable job losses,\u201d Prof. Kurmann said.<\/p>\n

Further evidence comes from payment data. Payment processor Square said late last year that spending by Canadian cardholders across the U.S. had fallen 22 per cent. In border states, the change is more acute: Credit card data tracked by the state of Vermont showed a 47-per-cent drop in Canadian spending last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada and Canadians \u2212 we can push back to a bully and we can inflict some pain,\u201d said Stephen Tapp, chief economist at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, a non-profit research group. \u201cWe can make it difficult for them. We can make it noticeable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the plunge in Canadian consumption of U.S. alcohol \u2212 which remains cleared from shelves in several provinces \u2212 two of the most significant changes have come in the form of cars and steel products. <\/p>\n

Canada imported 94,148 fewer American-made cars last year, a 12-per-cent decline, as international automakers with plants in the U.S. reconfigured supply lines to avoid Ottawa\u2019s counter-tariffs. Most of those cars were replaced by models made in Mexico, South Korea and Germany. <\/p>\n

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A “Buy Canadian Instead” sign is displayed at a B.C. Liquor Store in February, 2025. Canadian consumption of U.S. alcohol has plunged over the last year, with some provinces removing American products from liquor store shelves.Chris Helgren\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. tariffs are costing automakers billions of dollars and weakening the North American auto industry,\u201d said Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n

U.S. steel exports to Canada, meanwhile, dropped by a fifth, a trade diminished both by short-lived Canadian counter-tariffs and U.S. steel prices lifted by American tariffs. It is now considerably more lucrative for U.S. steelmakers to sell at home. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat reduced a lot of exports from the U.S. to Canada,\u201d said Fran\u00e7ois Desmarais, vice-president of trade and industry affairs for the Canadian Steel Producers Association. <\/p>\n

Canada, Mexico agree to \u2018close co-ordination\u2019 on USMCA talks<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, the relative fortunes of steelmakers on opposite sides of the border highlights a broader truth: In some ways, the fall in Canadian acquisition of U.S. goods is a sign not of Canadian strength but of weakness. <\/p>\n

The U.S. also bought fewer goods and services from Canada. Compared to the average from 2015 to 2024, the drop in 2025 amounts to US$55-billion.<\/p>\n

And a \u201cone-dollar drop in U.S. imports from Canada \u2212 that\u2019s a lot bigger for Canada than the same drop in Canadian imports from the U.S. is for the U.S.,\u201d said Joseph Steinberg, a professor of economics at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Overall, \u201cwhatever actions we\u2019ve taken, whether they\u2019re explicit retaliatory tariffs \u2212 which we mostly backed off on pretty quickly \u2212 or just buy-Canadian momentum, I would say that there\u2019s not really any clear evidence that that has amounted to much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worse, Mexico \u201chas fared a lot better,\u201d he said. Mexican trade with the U.S.<\/a> actually rose last year.<\/p>\n

For Canada, meanwhile, the geography of dependency remains unchanged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still true that the closest large metropolitan area to Winnipeg is Minneapolis. For Vancouver, it\u2019s Seattle. It\u2019s not even clear that the reason we have so much trade with the United States in the first place was really a political choice at any point,\u201d said Torsten S\u00f8chting Jaccard, an economist who specializes in international trade at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

That also means \u201cit\u2019s not clear that a political decision could reverse it all that much.\u201d Diversifying trade is laudable, he said. But \u201cit\u2019s almost impossible to envision a world\u201d in which the U.S. is not Canada\u2019s top trading partner.<\/p>\n

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Customers enter a Loblaws store in Toronto. Across Loblaws locations, purchases of U.S. goods have not recovered, but have instead settled at a new, albeit lower, normal.Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Only 12 per cent of Canadian businesses intended to actively seek alternative suppliers outside the U.S. this year, Statistics Canada research from late 2025 found. Fewer than 15 per cent expected to increase domestic sourcing. <\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness is between people. So as long as the relationships and the business terms and conditions are reasonable, companies will continue to do business with each other on both sides of the border,\u201d said Andrew DiCapua, principal economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

Overall, Canadians are not giving the U.S. a cold shoulder \u201cen masse,\u201d Mr. DiCapua said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are some interesting pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

One is at the grocery store. Across Loblaws locations, purchases of U.S. goods have not recovered. Instead, they have settled \u201cat a new normal (lower) but only modestly so,\u201d said Scott Bonikowsky, Loblaws senior vice-president for corporate affairs and communication.<\/p>\n

Border states, too, have shown no sign that Canadians are once again warming to the U.S. In Vermont, the credit card tracking data shows that the opposite is true.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that it\u2019s declining even more is not great news,\u201d said Maureen McCracken, the director of marketing strategy and research at the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. Local businesses have offered \u201cborder buddy discounts,\u201d some taking the loonie at par. But such gestures only go so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody thinks that fixes our geopolitical issues,\u201d Ms. McCracken said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Signage asking shoppers to buy local products on a storefront window in Montreal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,28,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-621463","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-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\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}