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Navigating the Impact: Canada’s Response to New U.S. Tariffs

As Canada and its allies prepare for the impact of newly announced U.S. tariffs, Food & Beverage Manitoba, in collaboration with its sister organizations and Food & Beverage Canada, remains committed to keeping its members informed and providing resources to help mitigate the challenges of this economic crisis.

While Manitoba’s exports to the U.S. may be smaller compared to other provinces, the ripple effects of these tariffs on our members’ supply chains will be significant and far-reaching.

“This will inevitably lead to higher grocery prices on both sides of the border, but the strain on our members extends throughout the supply chain—from raw ingredients and inputs to packaging sourced from U.S. suppliers,” says Michael Mikulak, Executive Director.

Food & Beverage Canada’s Working Group on Canada-U.S. Relations has convened twice to date, focusing on intelligence sharing, assessing the sector-specific impacts of tariffs, and developing recommendations for federal and provincial governments to safeguard industry competitiveness in an increasingly complex trade environment.

Food and Beverage Manitoba, alongside Food and Beverage Ontario, Food & Beverage Atlantic, Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec (CTAQ), BC Food & Beverage, and the Alberta Food Processors Association, along with representatives from Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing industry all form part of this working group. Further, there have been insights gathered from FBC-ABC’s meetings with key stakeholders, including the Canada-US Trade Council, the Department of Finance’s briefings on Canada-US Relations, and meetings with industry officials.

On February 2, the federal government released the list of products from the US subject to a 25% tariff effective February 4, 2025 for the $30 billion tariff line level. This list includes, among other things, variations of:

  • Live poultry; meat and edible offal; pig fat; milk and cream; yogurt and buttermilk; whey; butter and other fats; cheese and curd; birds eggs; natural honey; tomatoes; leguminous vegetables; nuts; citrus fruit; melons; apricots, cherries and peaches; coffee; tea; pepper; vanilla; cinnamon; nutmeg; anise; ginger, saffron, turmeric, thyme, bay leaves, curry and other spices; rye; barley; wheat; rape seeds; fats and oils; vegetable saps and extracts; palm oil; sunflower seed; margarine; sausages and similar products; cane or beet sugar; molasses; confectionary sugar; chocolate; malt extract; pasta; sauces and preparations therefore; soups and broths; food preparations no elsewhere specified; ice cream; waters; beer; wine of fresh grapes; vermouth; fermented beverages; undenatured ethyl alcohol;  
  • Articles for the conveyance or packaging of goods, of plastics; stoppers, lids, caps and other closures, or plastics; carton, boxes, cases, bags and other packing containers, of paper, paperboard, cellulose wadding or webs of cellulose fibres; other paper, paperboard, cellulose wadding and webs of cellulose fibres, cut to size or shape; 
  • Various tools and utensils; 
  • Refrigerators, freezers; machinery, plant or laboratory equipment, whether or not electricity heated, for the treatment of materials by a process involving a change of temperature; harvesting or threshing machinery; machinery for washing;  
  • And more.  

The Canadian government also intends to impose tariffs on an additional list of imported US products, worth $125B. This second list will be made available in the coming days, for a 21-day public comment period. It will include products such as passenger vehicles, trucks and buses, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, aerospace products, beef, pork, dairy products, and more.

Food & Beverage Manitoba welcomes any comments on the list and the government’s on-going response to the tariffs.

“This is an unprecedented economic crisis, on a scale comparable to the pandemic,” says Mikulak. “We are working closely with trade associations, industry leaders, and all levels of government to ensure our members and the broader industry can navigate and withstand these challenges.

We are committed to maintaining open lines of communication with our members and will continue to provide timely updates on available resources and support as they emerge.”