Experts say President Donald Trump’s plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on most imported Canadian goods and a 10 percent tariff on Canadian oil and gas may have already caused irreparable harm.
If the tariffs are introduced on Tuesday, Canada has said it will retaliate with a 25 percent import tax on a multitude of American products, including wine, cigarettes and shotguns. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also urged Canadians to buy Canadian products and vacation at home.
Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, warns the trade dispute will have far-reaching spillover effects, from price increases and paperwork backlogs to longer wait times at the U.S.-Canada border for both people and products.
“These industries on both sides are built up out of a cross-border relationship, and disruptions will play out on both sides,” Trautman said.
Even the threat of tariffs may have already caused irreparable harm, she said.
The tariffs have already touched off a range of emotions along the world’s longest international border, where residents and industries are closely intertwined.
Ranchers in Canada rely on American companies for farm equipment, and export cattle and hogs to U.S. meat processors. U.S. consumers enjoy thousands of gallons of Canadian maple syrup each year. While Canadian dogs and cats dine on U.S. made pet food.
The Associated Press wanted to know what residents and businesses were thinking along the border that former U.S. President Ronald Reagan vowed would remain unburdened by an “invisible barrier of economic suspicion and fear.”
Here’s what they said:
People flocked from the boomtown of Skagway, Alaska, to Canada’s Yukon in search of riches during the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s, following routes that Indigenous tribes long used for trade.
Today, Skagway trades on its past, drawing more than one million cruise ship passengers a year to a historic downtown that features Klondike-themed museums. But the municipality with a population of about 1,100 still holds deep ties to the Yukon.
Skagway residents frequently travel to Whitehorse, the territory’s capital, for a wider selection of groceries and shopping, dental care, veterinary services and swimming lessons. The Alaskan city’s port, meanwhile, still supports Yukon mining and is a critical hub for fuel and other essentials both communities need.
“It’s a special connection,” Orion Hanson, a contractor and Skagway Assembly member, said of Whitehorse, which sits 110 miles (177 kilometers) north and has 30,000 people. “It’s really our most accessible neighbor.”
Hanson is concerned about what tariffs might mean for the price of building supplies, such as lumber, concrete and steel. The cost of living in small, remote places already is high. People in Whitehorse and Skagway worry about the potential impact on community relations as well as prices.
