This week, the United States launched an unprecedented attack on the Canadian economy, imposing tariffs that will significantly impact working people in both countries. This comes alongside US tariffs against Mexico and China. In response, Canada has imposed tariffs on US goods.
“US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are intended to shock and destabilize our economy,” said UFCW Local 247 President Dan Goodman. “There will be far reaching impacts, as these policies create winners and losers. Make no mistake: this trade war is a war on working people. We need to mobilize our solidarity to push back.”
The past few years have been marked by sharp increases in grocery costs. Tariffs will only make things worse, and as the CBC pointed out, “you’ll notice it in the grocery store first.”
As food workers and consumers, it’s important for us to take note of what these tariffs are and how they might impact us. This is a very basic primer for members.
A tariff is a tax imposed on goods imported from another country. Tariffs drive up the prices of products simply because of where they come from.
By imposing tariffs on Canadian goods this week, the US is making products from our country more expensive to sell there, allowing less efficient producers in the US to be more competitive by having lower prices.
Tariffs are not new. Along with colonizing others, many of the world’s rich countries industrialized their economies by using similar policies. In doing this, they protected their national companies by making foreign goods more expensive. This was called trade “protectionism.”
Later, when their companies wanted to expand and seek more profit, all of these same countries promoted “free trade agreements” around the world. For Canada, the (in)famous example was the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the predecessor to the current Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA).
Among other things, these policies allowed companies to easily move their factories to where it was cheaper or easier to produce, sending them to parts of the world where they could be sold without additional tariffs. This is a form of trade “liberalization,” often referred to as corporate “globalization.”
Free trade policies had massive impacts on our economy and sovereignty. In Canada’s food industry, when Canada and the US entered into free trade agreements, we started to see large US companies open up food processing plants across the country. They were attracted by cheaper labour costs and better access to livestock producers. Many other industries saw these same kinds of changes.
Many smaller Canadian companies could not compete and either closed or were bought up. These policies created a massive disruption.
However, over many years, thousands of workers at large food processing facilities found ways to push back, in some cases forming unions. Soildarity was essential.
Suddenly and on a massive scale, the US government is bringing back that concept of trade protectionism by using tariffs to make foreign-made goods more expensive to US consumers. The theory is that this will encourage companies to produce in the US again, creating jobs. But the process will undoubtedly cause many job losses, and the desired result will not happen soon and may not happen at all. Some speculate that the policies are about creating chaos.
Certain wealthy segments of society may benefit from this change in trade policy, but in this trade war, there is little doubt that the collateral damage will be felt mostly by working people.
“These reckless policies drive up the cost of goods, threaten jobs, and destabilize industries that working people, including UFCW members, rely on,” said UFCW Canada National President Shawn Haggerty. “Instead of creating opportunities, tariffs only make life harder for the very people they claim to protect.”
Whether or not we agree with changing trade policies affecting our industries over the past decades, people who debate these things tend to agree that food systems – from farm to fork – are not built overnight and are very sensitive to any form of disruption.
No analysts have a crystal ball, but there is a consensus that things are going to be very difficult.
At this point, we can only speculate, but as a union, these are just some of the impacts we might see:
Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, challenged the Canadian government to reorient the Canadian economy to favour the needs of working people.
“This is a moment to rebuild our manufacturing, strengthen our supply chains, and create the good union jobs of tomorrow,” said Bruske. “We must replace lost economic activity with ambitious nation-building projects—affordable housing, public transit, and industrial development that makes our country stronger and more self-sufficient.”
Bruske also suggested that worker solidarity is an antidote to chaos:
The road ahead will be tough… But Canada’s workers are strong, smart, and resilient. What makes us Canadian is our unwavering belief in the collective—that we take care of each other, that no one gets left behind. Now more than ever, we must live those values. Already you’ve shown your pride at hockey games and in grocery stores. Now is the time to dig in.
Get involved in your union. Stand up for your community. Support local businesses and union-made products. Look out for your neighbours. Reach across political lines and reject the forces of division.
Because we are stronger together, and together, we will overcome this.
Now more than ever is the time to support food products made in Canada by union workers. Visit our Great Canadian Food Products page to explore a list of items produced by UFCW Canada members.
For more information on tariffs, their history, and what they mean from an economic perspective, we recommend the following interview in Jacobin: Trump’s Tariffs Are a Gift to Capital, Not Workers.
