Canada’s auto sector taking the biggest hit
Canada’s biggest victims today? The auto sector, followed by steel and aluminum and an assortment of other goods.
But the harsh reality is that Canada’s largest manufactured product, autos, still faces a hodgepodge of tariffs: 25 per cent on fully assembled vehicles and some parts, while other parts face none.
One Canada-U.S. trade consultant said Canada fared better than most countries today. But it’s cold comfort for certain sectors.
“Autos is going to be massively impactful for Canada,” said Eric Miller, the Canadian-born head of the Rideau Potomac consultancy in Washington.
“That’s a huge amount of pain for Canada. And you will see a huge amount of restructuring and realignment in the North American auto sector.”
One industry player put it even more bluntly, in a social media post, predicting an industry standstill within days, and not just in Canada.
“The. Auto. Tariff. Package. Will. Shut. Down. The. Auto. Sector. In. The. USA. And. In. Canada,” Flavio Volpe, head of Canada’s auto-parts lobby, in a post on X.
“Don’t be distracted. 25% tariffs are 4 times the 6/7% profit margins of all the companies. Math, not art.”
Other Canadian sectors facing large tariffs are steel, aluminum, energy products and anything not traded under the rules of CUSMA.
Estimates range for how many goods that covers. But it appears more than half of Canada’s exports to the U.S. may now face tariffs.
