The ongoing trade war between Canada and the U.S. isn’t only affecting the cost of a wide range of items, but the uncertainty is also impacting the number of trucks from Manitoba making the drive down south.
The owner of the Emerson, Man., duty free shop along the border said he’s observed a massive slowdown in business ever since U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats began.
“This is eerily reminiscent to the pandemic, except this time, we don’t really see the trucks,” Simon Resch — whose family has operated Emerson Duty Free for more than 40 years — told 680 CJOB’s The Start.
“During the pandemic, the border was closed, leisure travel was obviously shut … but trucks were still moving between Canada and the U.S.
“This time we see virtually an elimination of southbound … travel.”
Resch said on a typical Monday or Tuesday, pre-tariffs, hundreds of Manitoba trucks would be lined up on Highway 75 to take goods into the United States, but last week, he only saw a small handful of trucks making the trip.
It’s especially shocking, he said, given the importance of the Emerson crossing to international trade between the two countries.
“There’s about $31 billion a year that gets exchanged right here. It’s the largest trade border crossing between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean, and not seeing the trucks is crazy.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Resch’s experience fits with what the Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA) says its members are dealing with.
The MTA told Global Winnipeg on Monday that businesses don’t want to ship anything across the border unless they know for certain it won’t be subject to tariffs, and that more than 28,000 Manitobans employed in the trucking industry are being potentially affected.