In the ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States, this country has been given a bit of a reprieve on some tariffs, but business leaders in Manitoba say it’s no time to get complacent, especially given the uncertainty of the evolving situation.
Chuck Davidson, president of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, told Global Winnipeg that although we didn’t get hit with more tariffs, damage has already been done.
“You’ve been in a world of uncertainty for the past two months, and you’ve been trying to make decisions in terms of how do you move your business forward? What are we going to do to continue to grow our company?” he said.
“Companies I’ve talked about that may have had plans to start expanding into the U.S. have held back on those.
“Companies that do not know, in terms of what the next six months is going to look like, have held off on making investments, or they’ve held off on doing hiring to continue to grow their business. ”
Davidson said he believes the cloud of uncertainty will continue to hang over companies’ heads for the foreseeable future, and at least some industries can get a chance to catch their breath — if only for the moment.
“We at least have a better understanding that (we can) continue to move products and continue that relationship with the U.S. that we’ve had for decades, that strong trading relationship,” he said.
“We’ve talked about the numbers repeatedly — we do about 73 per cent of trade exports from Manitoba into the United States on an annual basis. It accounts for almost $18 billion of our economy, we important close to $23 billion worth of goods, so it’s good that’s going to continue.:”
Davidson said businesses on this side of the border can’t let their guard down, and should focus on trying to become more self-sufficient and less reliant on the U.S.
“Is this for the long-term? Do not take our eye off the ball and assume it’s business as usual,” he said.
“There will be some challenging times ahead — specifically for a number of industries — and what the president has done is essentially declared a global trade war instead of just a trade war with Canada and Mexico.”
John McCallum, professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba, said that while this province won’t be affected by these tariffs as much as some others, provincial trade barriers remain an issue, and the sooner they’re broken down, the better.
“We don’t’ have a huge manufacturing sector, we’re not tied to autos which is really going to get hit very hard. Lumber’s going to get fairly quickly too, I think, and we’re not tied up in that all that much,” he said.
“We’re a diversified economy, and we have some resources that the U.S. still has a big interest in. You don’t really want to be anybody in this world, but Manitoba will come through this, I think, not too badly.”