‘Owners are afraid’: New tariffs could cut sales in half for some Canadian businesses

With only hours to spare for Canada to strike a trade deal with the United States, a wide swath of Canadian businesses are on edge — with some expecting as much as half of their sales could disappear if the punishing new levies take hold.

The latest round of U.S. tariffs are set to take effect Wednesday unless a last-minute deal is reached. They would layer on top of existing U.S. trade sanctions, adding another duty to $28-billion worth of Canadian products including electronics, dairy, alcohol, wood and more.

For some Canadian businesses, their products wouldn’t just become more expensive for American customers. Instead, the price would be so high their products would never even make it across the border, some business owners say.

Todd Stafford, president of Brockville, Ont.-based Northern Cables, says his company counts on U.S. buyers for about half of its sales. The company manufactures copper and aluminum power cables for commercial and industrial use.

Canada-U.S. trade talks stuck as Washington, provinces refuse to budge

“We ship 50 per cent of our production to the U.S. We have seven warehouses in the U.S.,” he told CBC News on Monday. “At the announced level of 50 per cent tariffs, we would lose all of that business immediately.”

Stafford says if the new U.S. tariffs kick in on Wednesday, "we can’t have a single tractor-trailer cross the border.

"We’re hoping cooler heads prevail, or maybe there'll be some kind of time extension," he added.

The company, which has 320 employees in Brockville, has avoided layoffs for the last 26 years. Stafford said he worries the tariffs will compound problems at home, like slowing condo construction and competition from cheaper Chinese-made products.

“We wouldn’t [lose] 50 per cent of the people,” he said. “But it would be very close to that.”

Where do Canada-U.S. trade negotiations stand? Here's a sector-by-sector breakdown

From auto parts to lumber, steel and aluminum, U.S. President Donald Trump has targeted key sectors of Canada’s economy since his second term started in January 2025.

However, the vast majority of cross-border trade has been exempt under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), a trade deal Trump formally signed in 2020. This has significantly blunted the trade war's impact on Canada’s economy.

The new tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday would change that, impacting about five per cent of the overall trade Canada does with the U.S. The list of affected Canadian exports is long, including items like hockey sticks, certain flowers and antiques.