The sales manager of a manufacturing and tool company based in Windsor says that it is in “surprise and disbelief” for the news that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, intends to proceed with a 25 tariff for one hundred on Canadian products on Saturday.
Peter Gossmann of Cavalier Tool and Manufacturing Ltd. said he does not believe that Trump has had enough time since its inauguration to evaluate the impact of rates.
“None of us can afford to go to our customers and increase our prices by 25 percent. That will have a great impact,” said Gossman. “If you remain in 25 percent, Canada is in big problems.”
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Friday that the president will give a 25 percent tariff about Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent rate on China’s Saturday assets.
Hours later, Trump told journalists in the oval office that he expects rates to include oil, gas, steel, aluminum, copper and microchips, but potentially with staggered dates and rates, depending on the product.
Vehicle production could stop, says Expert.
The Gossman company builds plastic injection molds and other types of tools for recreational vehicles, heavy trucks, consumer goods and other markets, including the automotive industry.
It will be less affected than many, he said, because there is a lot of content of us in their products.
But he said that rates are bad news for Canada in general.
An expert in the automotive industry said that vehicle production could stop towards the middle or at the end of next week, as a result of tariffs.
“Vehicle manufacturers do not want to build ‘tariff’ vehicles,” said Michael Robinet, vice president of prognosis strategy for the global S&P mobility.
“Piece suppliers, if you have to start paying fees, are not a bank and are not a charity organization. Therefore, if they cannot get someone to help pay for their tariff, then they will stop production.”
The Financiero de Dainty Foods, based in Windsor, said that tariffs could also have a significant impact on his company, which is the only Canada rice mill.
Dainty matters much of his United States rice, said Shawez Khan, and wins a large part of his income from US exports.
“If Canada ends up putting a tariff on products that enter the United States, it will hit us even worse than everyone else,” Khan said.
Canada needs to appease Trump, says the business owner
“You will pay tariffs for imports, and then our clients will pay exports tariffs. Which only means that we cannot compete in the United States market as effectively as we do at this time.”
That would force the company to rethink its growth strategy, Khan said.
He said he believes that Canada should do whatever necessary in border security so that Trump abandons tariffs.
Windsor, Ontario, Mayor Drew Dilkens talks about Power & Politics about how the crossing of more busy commercial borders between the United States and Canada is responding to the rates that President Donald Trump says he will begin on February 1.
“They will spend a few weeks before we really feel the impact … and we really hope that in those few weeks we have effective negotiations with the Trump administration, and let’s get out of this situation,” he said.
The mayor of Windsor, Drew Dilkens, told CBC on Friday that a 25 percent rate could be catastrophic if he continues for some time.
Dilkens leads a new alliance of mayors of Border that aims to unite border mayors in both countries against tariffs.
Trump has said he wants to transfer the manufacture of Canadian cars to Detroit, but Dilkens said it is not practical to move the entire supply chain on the other side of the border in a short period of time.
“Even if you do that, you will only increase the value of your own dollar, which will have a negative impact on the whole other commerce you expect to do around the world,” he said.
The president of the Canadian Tool and Mechanized Association said that he believes that Trump should focus his tariffs on Canada and the common competitor of the United States: China.
The manufacture of North America cars is so integrated that the car components cross the border several times, said Louis Jahn.
A company in Windsor could buy tools components from the US, build the tools for a board and then send it to the United States to be part, he said.
And countries could continue delivering the project from one side to another and building the work of others several times.
“If it were as simple as simply saying” Oh, that’s fine, every time a part meets that American border … let’s put 25 percent in it ‘… that part would probably increase around 500 per cent “, said.
If the United States imposes tariffs on the Canadian tool industry that make it prohibitive for car manufacturers to do business with them, it harms their own automotive sector, Jahn said.
“It will not redirect manufacturing flow to the United States because … resources are not available: labor, training, skills development.”