Canada’s retaliatory tariffs are meant to put pressure on American businesses, but one local business says they’ll be punished more than the Americans.
Most of the boats Jennifer and Zach Green purchase for their business Mahone Marine, come from the US.
Those boats are now the subject of 10 per cent tariffs, which have been strategically put in place by the federal government in retaliation of the Trump administrations tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Jennifer says it’s not as simple as just finding Canadian or European suppliers instead of buying American.
“The relationship between a dealer and manufacturer is complicated and goes on for many years and building a brand takes a long time.”
She says there aren’t many pleasure boat manufacturers in Canada and it would take time to establish a relationship with a new brand and her customers in Nova Scotia.
Zach says the tariffs are ineffective when it comes to creating pressure on their suppliers because their sales are mostly domestic.
“They’re not punishing these builders by putting these tariffs on, they’re not writing their local congress person saying ‘hey make sure Canada, doesn’t have this tariff’ because they can’t keep up with demands anyway.”
The couple will have to absorb the costs of tariffs on boats that customers ordered last year and put their prices up for current sales.
They sent their letter to the prime minister and finance department during a public comment period set up by the government to get feedback on their proposed list of tariffs.
Bernadette Jordan, MP for South Shore – St. Margarets, told Acadia News in a previous interview that she reached out to Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland on the issue as well.
So far those pleas seem to have gone unheard.
The Greens say the Atlantic Marine Trade Association is also trying to put pressure on government to remove the tariffs on behalf of them and other business that sell pleasure boats.
Mahone Marine has been in business for around six years.
Story and photo by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca
