‘Shop local, buy Canadian’: Quinte area businesses respond to renewed tariff pressure

For some local merchants, business for the past few years has been one calamity after another.

First, COVID-19 from 2019-2023, then the tariffs of the Trump era.

The latest escalation came last week after Canada and the United States failed to reach a new trade agreement following a month of negotiations. The U.S. is moving ahead with a 50 per cent tariff on roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian goods, prompting Canada to announce matching tariffs and promise additional support for affected workers and businesses.

“Many of our small businesses are still paying off loans and financial obligations taken on during the COVID pandemic,” said Lisa Kuypers Schroedter in an email to Quinteist. She’s executive director of the Trenton Downtown Business Improvement Area.

“After years of navigating lockdowns, rising costs, labour challenges and an uncertain economy, businesses are now facing another layer of pressure through the tariffs and ongoing trade uncertainty.”

Vivacious, a women’s fashion store and spa in the middle of the downtown, is lucky – if you can call long hours of hard work and sales strategies lucky.

After successfully negotiating through the pandemic, Vivacious owner Angela Widish ran into the tariff wall.

“Tariffs affected our business last year,” she said “[Like] many small businesses, we had to close our online U.S. sales as the duties and brokerage fees made shipping clothing into the U.S. impossible.

Widish said her goal has always been to buy Canadian but there is more to navigate through turbulent trade waters.

“Our products are not directly affected by the tariffs, but since 2024 between U.S.-Canada relations, cost of gas and food and general inflation and increased interest rates we have seen a significant decline in sales,” she said, and that is despite buying from Canadian companies.

Kuypers Schroedter said she hopes consumers will shop downtown Trenton and help them weather the storm.

‘Shop local, buy Canadian,” she advised. “Our downtown businesses have shown incredible resilience through some very difficult years.

“Now, more than ever, they need the support of their community.”

It’s a refrain echoed in Belleville, too.

“Tariffs and economic uncertainty highlight the importance of supporting local,” said Danielle Furtado, executive director of the Belleville Downtown District BIA. “Choosing to shop local keeps dollars in our community, supports local jobs and businesses, and helps strengthen Belleville’s economy.”

Malette said Ottawa plans to introduce additional measures for Canadian workers and businesses in the coming days, building on what he described as nearly $25 billion in support provided over the past 18 months.

“We will keep focusing on what we can control; building strength here at home and diversifying our trade, so that Canada is no longer reliant on a single trading partner.”

In a statement issued Monday, Aug. 24, Bay of Quinte MP Chris Malette encouraged Bay of Quinte businesses affected by the tariffs to contact his constituency office, saying information about the local impact can be passed along to federal departments and decision-makers.

“Understanding the impacts on local employers, workers, producers and exporters helps ensure that the concerns of our region are communicated to the appropriate government departments and decision-makers.”