'Not welcome news': Trump's latest tariff threat creating uncertainty with Waterloo region businesses

'Not welcome news': Trump's latest tariff threat creating uncertainty with Waterloo region businesses

50% tariffs proposed on dairy, wine and whiskey among other products

A new round of tariffs on Canadian products proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump is creating uncertainty among Canadian business owners, including those in Waterloo region.

The 50 per cent levy is set to take effect Aug. 19. Some of the impacted Canadian products include Canadian milk products, wine and whiskey. There's also tariffs on a long list of seemingly random products, like candles, envelopes and Christmas decorations.

Ian Mclean is the president and CEO of Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce and says this latest announcement is not good news for local businesses.

"The one thing that business hates probably more than anything is uncertainty, so this is not welcome news," Mclean told CBC News. "It will probably have a dampening effect even if they don't … actually get implemented."

Guelph MP Dominique O’Rourke said the announcement of new tariffs was surprising.

“It’s clear that everyone is eager to get back to a time of more certainty,” she said.

O'Rourke said her government along with business owners are taking a closer look to understand the impacts of the possible tariffs.

“Obviously our government is going to be trying to address any sort of outstanding issues with the U.S., but it’s got to be the mutual benefit of our citizens. So, I think for business owners, of course, there's a concern anytime there's uncertainty, but we've also seen that some of the tariffs don't come to fruition or not the way that they had been expected,” said O’Rourke.

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O’Rourke says even if the tariffs don’t pass, the uncertainty is very challenging for local business owners.

"They don't know whether they can expand, they don’t know whether they should hire more people, they're not sure whether it's going to jeopardize the orders they have on their books or their future orders. And so just that uncertainty is already an impact," O'Rourke.

Mclean says current tariffs are having an impact on the local community. Currently, the U.S. has a 10 per cent blanket tariff on all goods from Canada.

"We still have the tariffs on things that people use every day - on autos, on steel, aluminum, softwood lumber, these things all make a huge difference. And people in our local community need to understand this impacts us too … those things are inputs that we use in everything we do, building cars, building homes, building office buildings," said Mclean.

'Just ridiculous': Locals react to tariff announcement

The announcement of new tariffs wasn’t surprising for some people in downtown Kitchener Tuesday.

"It now feels like it comes after every few months, right?" said Sachin Sandel.

"I think we should be worried a bit, because it will impact the businesses and at the end of the day, every country survives on businesses," said Sandel.

"I hope that the Canadian government should be able to negotiate in a manner wherein the Canadians are benefited as well."

Dariusz Pecak says the announcement gives him anxiety.

"You don’t want to imagine spending more of your paycheck when lots of people are already struggling with debt," Pecak said.

Daniel Kelly said the latest announcement is "just ridiculous."

“I've been worried about local businesses for a while. I've noticed even downtown that most of the places I knew about from five or 10 years ago are long gone. And the ones that are left over aren't going to last too much longer. It's a lot of change going along, a lot of chaos, and I think ultimately people need to slow down and start thinking and realizing things more," Kelly said.

One of the Canadian products that the tariffs are targeting is natural honey. For one local apiary, the tariffs are encouraging customers to support local businesses.

Erika Roth owns Nith Valley Apiaries in New Hamburg. She says the tariffs are promoting and boosting interest in local products.

"Our customers want local honey. So, just like you want to be able to find local meat, local produce, local dairy, know where your food comes from. I think living closer to populated communities, there's a lot greater interest in local honey," Roth told CBC News.

Roth says the larger apiaries who rely on exporting honey to the U.S. would feel the impact of tariffs more.

Lauren Kuivenhoven is an reporter at CBC K-W. She loves hearing from the community and is open to stories at lauren.kuivenhoven@cbc.ca.