Hamilton’s industrial sector is braced for “huge disruptions” as U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs take effect Tuesday.
Faced with uncertainty, local steelmakers and their customers are pausing plans, said Keanin Loomis, president and CEO of Canadian Institute of Steel Construction.
“We’re highly integrated [with U.S. industries] and this is going to have huge disruptions for us for sure,” said the Hamilton resident.
“They’re already being felt. Contracts are getting cancelled, bids are getting cancelled and it has already impacted the price of steel.”
Loomis said the full extent of those initial impacts will be clearer when the financial markets reopen Monday, and as the U.S. releases more details.
Mayor Jim Diodati says the extent of the impacts on the border city will depend on if Americans continue to visit despite the rising tension between Canada and the U.S.
On Saturday evening, the White House confirmed President Donald Trump will impose a 25 per cent tariff on virtually all Canadian goods, effectively launching a trade war. Canadian energy products will see a lower 10 per cent tariff, according to a fact sheet prepared by the U.S. government.
These potentially devastating tariffs are slated to take effect on Tuesday and remain in place until Trump is satisfied Canada is doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., said the fact sheet.
Concern grows about advanced manufacturing jobs
In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada will impose punitive 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods in the coming days and weeks.
Steelmaker Stelco, headquartered in Hamilton, has already seen a slowdown in customer orders in anticipation of the U.S.’s tariffs, said United Steel Workers’ Ron Wells, president of the local representing Stelco employees.
Layoffs are always a possibility, Wells said, but noted when Stelco was bought last year by U.S.-based Cleveland Cliffs Inc., part of the agreement included a condition there’d be no reduction in the unionized workforce.
“Hopefully they live up to it,” Wells said.
Neither Cleveland Cliffs, nor Hamilton’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal Dofasco responded to requests for comment.
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath said in a statement she’s concerned about the impact tariffs will have on local businesses, workers and families, and will continue advocating for policies that “safeguard Hamilton’s economic future.”
The city’s business community will be “significantly impacted,” said Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Dunnett. Hamilton is home to about 28,000 advanced manufacturing jobs — 20 per cent more than the national average.
He said he expects reductions in production, which will impact jobs.
Mixed impacts on growers
Farmers are also worried, said Mel Switzer with the Hamilton-Wentworth Federation of Agriculture. Many export hogs, poultry, dairy and cattle to the U.S. and are waiting for more details. Switzer said American companies buying Canadian agricultural products will likely try to pass off the extra tariff cost by paying lower prices.
Several premiers, including Ontario’s Doug Ford, said they’d also be implementing countermeasures.
Ford’s government has instructed the LCBO to stop sales of all liquor from the United States, which totals nearly $1 billion annually. B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador and other provinces made similar announcements Sunday.
That ban is a silver lining for Niagara wine makers, who are in direct competition with their Californian counterparts, says Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario.
“This whole philosophy of ‘we’re going to have to band together to get through this,’ it means we need to put more emphasis on local,” Zimmerman said.
“This gives people more of an opportunity to get out there and try some of the best things that we grow.”
The trade war is a “wake-up call” for the steel industry, said Loomis.
It’s already made some progress diversifying away from the U.S. to overseas markets when Trump hit the industry with tariffs in 2018, but more needs to happen, Loomis said. Another lesson learned from 2018 is that this trade war is a “blip” and something the steel industry — and Canada — can work its way out of.
“What we have to do is make sure that whatever is facing us, whatever we’re going to have to go through for however long, ultimately it needs to strengthen us as a country,” he said.