By Kari Mar
La Conner Community News
For La Conner, the impact of the collapse of tariff negotiations between the U.S. and Canada this past weekend will not be abstract: It will unfold at the grocery cash register and in the balance sheets of local businesses, a reflection of how intertwined our local economies and daily lives are with Canada.
New, 50% U.S. tariffs on more than 500 Canadian products took effect Saturday. The targeted goods represent about $20 billion of the roughly $382 billion in products the United States imported from Canada last year and include dairy products, clothing, plywood and other building materials, paper products, honey and a long list of consumer goods.
The tariffs come on top of existing U.S. duties affecting Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber.
“These tariffs could affect La Conner for now and in the future. Our town relies on our neighbors to the north to come visit, stay and enjoy all of what La Conner has to offer,” said La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman.
“When tariffs were imposed (threatened) at the beginning of the current administration, we saw a sharp decline in Canadian visitors. Over the course of the last year, we have seen an uptick in visitors — although not the numbers we had seen before,” she said. “With these new tariffs, our Canada friends will more than likely refuse to put up with this nonsense. Canada has always been great neighbors. I cannot blame them for saying enough is enough.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to retaliate dollar for dollar with new Canadian tariffs taking effect Sept. 8. Those tariffs are expected to target U.S. steel, dairy products, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics.
The new U.S. tariffs are also historically unusual.
President Donald Trump imposed them using Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a nearly century-old provision allowing tariffs of up to 50% against countries found to discriminate against U.S. commerce. Although previous administrations considered or threatened to use the provision, the Canada tariffs appear to be the first time Section 338 has actually been used to impose tariffs.
“These new tariffs aren’t leverage over Canada,” U.S, Rep. Rick Larsen said in a statement over the weekend. “They’re yet another way that the Trump administration is raising your prices and sabotaging the American economy.”
Mark Hulst, executive director of the La Conner Chamber of Commerce, worried that the optics of a trade war because of the tariffs could be bad enough to impact tourism.
“My concern is that the tariffs themselves may not be the only issue,” he said. “The perception that there is growing friction or ‘bad blood’ between our two countries could also influence people’s decisions about where they travel and how welcome they feel when they cross the border. If Canadian visitors begin to view traveling to Washington as more expensive, complicated or less welcoming, we could see some of the recent gains in Canadian visitation disappear.”
Kari Mar is the editor and publisher of La Conner Community News.
