Kansas businesses hit by Trump’s trade war are wooing Canadian customers

A man walks past the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka, Kan., June 17, 2024. Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP

OTTAWA — The head of the chamber of commerce in Topeka, Kan., is in Ottawa this week seeking to strengthen ties as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to rattle cross-border business relationships.

Juliet Abdel is meeting with federal and provincial officials, Canadian mayors and officials with the Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail network, which runs the only transnational lines connecting Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Her organization represents more than 1,000 Kansas businesses and stands opposed to the tariffs -- both Trump’s levies and Canada’s retaliatory measures. She said they threaten many small businesses in her region and the economies of other Midwest states as well.

She said the combined effect of the tariffs and counter-tariffs could cost the businesses she represents “millions” of dollars.

Abdel said about 20 per cent of the local workforce relies on international trade and that Kansas trades billions of dollars worth of goods and services with Canada every year.

She said Kansas exports product worth some $2.6 billion to Canada annually and imports back about $2.1 billion in goods -- making Canada a key trading partner.

The export-exposed state is linked to Canada through agriculture, chemicals, and auto and aerospace manufacturing. Almost 100 Canadian-owned companies have set up shop there, including Great West Financial and Bombardier, which has its U.S. headquarters in Wichita.

Ford also operates a major auto plant in nearby Kansas City which manufactures F-150 trucks.

Abdel said she wants to find ways to reduce the backlash in her region caused by Canadian consumers shunning American-made goods and avoiding travel south of the border.

She said preliminary conversations with Canadians are usually “warm and fuzzy,” since they share a position on tariffs, but the economic realty is different.

“There’s still a decline in tourists that have come from Canada to the U.S. pretty significantly,” she said. “There’s still a number of Canadians, while you all agree with us and we want to keep our relationship intact. There are still some that are very angered by what’s going on, and that’s what we want to avoid.”

Statistics Canada will release the latest travel figures later this week. Preliminary data for the month of April released earlier in May showed Canadian return trips by land from the U.S. dropped a steep 35.2 per cent year over year.

Trump slammed Canada with sweeping 25 per cent duties in March, only to partially pause tariffs on imports compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement trade pact days later.

Canada is also being hit with tariffs on steel, aluminum and vehicles.

Ottawa launched retaliatory tariffs, but since April 16 many have been remitted or placed under a six-month grace period to allow companies to find alternative supply chain sources.

In March most provinces ordered their provincial liquor stores to stop selling U.S. alcohol. For Ontario’s LCBO alone -- one of the largest alcohol retailers in the world -- that could be lost sales of close to $1 billion a year.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate foreign affairs committee hearing Tuesday that Prime Minister Mark Carney had a “a very productive engagement” with Trump at the White House on May 6 and suggested there’s light at the end of the tariff tunnel.

“We’ve obviously had some disagreements with Canada with regards to the nature of trade between our countries, but I think there’s hope here that we can work something out on the trade front with them, although that’s not something that I’m involved in negotiating,” Rubio said.

The U.S. recently announced new trade truces with China and the U.K., suggesting the White House is now looking for off-ramps from its global trade war -- although Trump has dug in on his Canada tariff plans.

A recent report from Oxford Economics forecasts that most Canada-U.S. tariffs could last until middle of next year, only to be removed after the two countries renegotiate the CUSMA trade pact.

Abdel said every day that goes by without some measure to ease cross-border tensions only adds to an environment of business uncertainty.

“Some people are thinking, ‘OK, well, we’ve struck a deal with the U.K. or we struck whatever those agreements are with select nations, now we can go back to that.’ It’s not that simple,” she said.

“We’ve seen that supply chain interruption before, when there’s been a major disruption and trucks are not in place, vessels are not readily available. To get back (to normal) takes a little bit to do.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press