Business community in Waterloo Region reacts to Trump's tariff threat

The Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce says the manufacturing sector would take the biggest hit if there was a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods shipped to United States.

President-elect Donald Trump promised he would make it happen when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20.

The local chamber said it’s important for all Canadians to be on the same page.

“If they see cracks in Canada's relationship between the provinces, they will want to take advantage of that. So, I think having that united front in dealing with the Trump administration is going to be key,” said Art Sinclair, vice president of the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.

The economic development agency in the region said while many businesses will be impacted it isn’t time for them to panic.

“It's an opening negotiating position. I think we need to remain calm and focus on the leverage that we have. And we do have leverage,” said Tony LaMantia, president of Waterloo EDC, an organization that helps businesses looking to locate, relocate or expand to Waterloo Region.

LaMantia said the leverage Canadians have is the integrated supply chain .

“I can assure you the tariffs are actually inflationary. This is not going to be a magic bullet to deal with keeping prices low. I think that sanity will eventually prevail,” LaMantia said.

He said consumers will also have to pay the price with tariffs.

“For instance, think about the cars made in Woodstock [and] in Cambridge that Toyota makes. They suddenly become much more expensive for Americans to buy,” he said.

Some are hopeful that there’s still time for negotiation.

“Hopefully the two sides can work out some type of an agreement over the next couple of months,” said Sinclair.

The local chamber of commerce represents about 1,800 businesses in the region. Sinclair said businesses in the region are known to bounce back after tough times.

“They’re resilient,” he said. “They’ve dealt with problems. There's been the pandemic. There's been major labour stoppages in the last year or so.”

The Uptown BIA told CTV News if tariffs are introduced, there will be some trickle-down effects at smaller businesses but it’s too early to comment on the overall impacts it could have.