Toronto, Canada – At a grocery store in downtown Toronto, small red maple leaves dot the aisles, appearing beside the prices of products. They’re easy to miss, but shoppers like Mateus Gujrel are on the lookout. They’re a quick sign that something is Canadian-made, an increasingly important factor for consumers like Gujrel amid a ballooning trade war with the United States.
Gujrel, a software developer, is part of a surge of nationalism under way in Canada. Since US President Donald Trump returned to office last year, relations between the two countries have grown strained amid waves of US tariffs. The tensions have made Gujrel “way more conscious” about buying locally sourced products, he said.
He switched his almond milk brand and stopped buying LaCroix, replacing the American sparkling water with a Canadian alternative. That kind of shopping has become increasingly common in Canada over the past year. Trump’s tariffs, along with his repeated comments about making Canada the “51st state”, have fuelled a movement to boycott US products and spend money closer to home.
There’s little sign that feeling is fading. Margaret Chapman, the chief operating officer at the market research company Narrative Research, said her firm has been tracking Canadians’ attitudes towards buying domestic products for roughly a year and a half. Experts have warned that consumer prices could rise and job losses are possible.
Already, the trade war is at a critical juncture. In late August, tensions between the US and Canada spiked after negotiations failed to head off Trump’s threatened 50 percent tariffs on nearly $20bn worth of Canadian products, including machinery, textiles and hockey sticks. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney later accused the US of inserting last-minute demands into the negotiations, including terms that were “uneconomic, unfair and undermined the net benefits for Canada”.
The US tariffs took effect on August 22. In response, on Tuesday, Canada imposed a new round of retaliatory tariffs of between 15 and 50 percent on roughly $20bn worth of US imports. Carney explained that the measures were a “dollar-for-dollar” response, targeting US products from steel and aluminium to dairy, appliances, clothing and cosmetics.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
