Truckers fear that the 25% tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump is still threatening to impose will have disastrous consequences for their sector, as trade between Canada and the United States would suffer.
“If these tariffs remain in place at these levels for an extended period of time, it could be the final nail in the coffin for many trucking fleets,” warned Canadian Trucking Alliance President Stephen Laskowski. “It’s a bleak picture.”
Tariffs on Canadian imports into the United States, which ultimately won’t take effect for at least 30 days, would be the biggest trade shock north of the border in nearly a century, according to RBC Economics.
Several of the 5,000 member companies of the Canadian Trucking Alliance are already struggling due to weaker consumer demand. “It’s a hypercompetitive situation,” Laskowski said of the struggling sector.
“When the economy catches a cold, the trucking industry catches pneumonia.”
Some 120,000 Canadian truckers haul cross-border shipments, he said. Shipments to the United States account for about two-thirds of all Canadian truckloads, according to transportation technology firm Arrive Logistics.
Read more in an article from La Presse (translated from French).
