'Very bad': How Trump's tariffs are causing misery on both sides of the Canadian border

President Donald Trump is describing Wednesday, April 2 — the day steep new tariffs are scheduled to go into effect, assuming he doesn't postpone them again — as "Liberation Day." But to critics of the tariffs, American consumers and business can look forward to much higher prices for everything from fruits and vegetables to cars to washing machines to computers.

Trump is getting the United States into an all-out trade war with longtime allies, including Canada — and plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on all goods imported into the U.S. from its neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney favors 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods imported into his country.

One of the industries that is bound to suffer because of the U.S./Canada trade war, according to economists, is tourism. American tourists spend a lot of money visiting Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City; Canadian tourists are great for the economies of New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and other U.S. cities.

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In an article published by the Times Union on March 30, reporter Larry Rulison describes the worries that Trump's tariffs are giving business owners in Upstate New York.

Garry Douglas, CEO of North Country Chamber of Commerce in Clinton County, New York, told the Times Union, "It's very bad right now."

Meanwhile, on the Canadian side of the border, Cindy Tobin, manager of Travac Travel in Ottawa, laments that fewer clients are booking travel to the U.S.

Tobin told the Times Union, "The day the tariffs were announced, the inquiries totally stopped. Not one call. Not one booking."

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According to Rulison, "Cross-border traffic into the U.S. began to dwindle even before the first round of tariffs went into effect. There was a 23 percent drop in the number of Canadians taking round, or return, trips into the U.S. by car last month compared to February 2024, according to Statistics Canada, which is similar to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of return trips into the U.S. by Canadians was down 2.4 percent year-over-year during February."

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Read the Times Union's full article at this link.