N.S. businesses concerned as U.S. tariffs on aluminum, steel take effect

Businesses in the Maritimes are bracing for the impact of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Employees at Nova Scotia Sheet Metal are filling an order for roof-top air conditioning units.

“We fabricate sheet metal supply for new and old buildings, ventilation ductwork,” says general manager Brian Carver.

They don’t do any business in the United States but most of the material they use does come from south of the border.

Carver expects the 25 per cent tariffs that came into effect Wednesday morning to hit hard.

“Overall impact, I think things are going to stop. There will be no new project started because people don’t have it in their budgets,” he says.

Canada is the biggest supplier of steel and aluminum to America, worth a combined $35 billion, most of which comes from Quebec.

Despite that, Maritime businesses are still in for a rough ride.

“It’s not just the disruption that it has between the steel sector itself, the producers, it’s also the inputs into our production, as well as many downstream players,” says Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association. “There’s a lot of fabrication that comes from the steel, absolutely.”

Moosehead Breweries is one of those businesses. Most of the brewery’s beer is sold in cans.

“As Canadians, we’re really, really upset about what’s going on with the tariff,” says president and CEO Andrew Oland.

He says they’ll being paying the levy on more than one front because aluminum crosses the border numerous times before they receive the finished product.

“From a Moosehead perspective, there’s tariffs coming on the aluminum from Quebec to the U.S. and then there’ll be tariffs coming when the rolls go back to Canada to be turned into cans and there will also be a tariff on these lids when they come into Canada,” he says.

In an interview with CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis, Oland said U.S. customers are also unhappy with the tariff situation.

“It’s getting scarier and scarier by the day,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get to some resolution and common sense.”

Canada is hitting back by imposing 25 per cent tariffs on nearly $30 billion worth of U.S. goods, $12.5 billion of which targets steel products and $3 billion of which targets aluminum goods. They will take effect on Thursday.

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