After Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration yesterday (Monday), a concern remaining on some Canadian minds is the tariff threat.
The 25 per cent tariff, which could be put in place February 1st, has already seen pushback, with BC Premier David Eby hailing it a “declaration of economic war”.
PG Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Neil Godbout says the Canadian Chamber of Commerce revealed what the impacts could look like.
“They’ve actually done the math, and it would work out to an economic impact of $1,900 CAD per person. Every Canadian.”
“Of course it would be felt on the other side of the border too, and they worked that out that it would be about $1,300 USD for every American.”
Godbout says the way to look at this is it being an opening salvo in a broader discussion about Canada U.S trade.
He added until we get to February 1st, we won’t know what exactly we’re dealing with, and the uncertainty, both on a political and business side of things.
“We don’t know exactly in terms of those individual companies, will they have to deal with tariffs or not?” said Godbout.
“Will these tariffs be across the board? Will they be targeted to certain sectors like lumber, or minerals, or whatever that looks like?”
Across the country, just under 275,000 jobs are supported by the province’s exports, and almost 6,500 B.C companies export to the U.S.
Whether the tariffs will be felt immediately or not, Godbout says it’s something that needs to trickle down to the consumer level, adding he doesn’t think the the impact will be a slow burn either.
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