Canadian food processor urges feds to axe reciprocal steel tariff or store prices will rise

Be prepared to pay more for canned tomatoes and beans at your local supermarket.

Canadian food processor Sun-Brite Foods cans products under the Primo and Unico brand names, and says prices are about to go up because of aluminum and steel tariffs.

The southwestern Ontario company based in the community of Ruthven makes 33 different types of tomato products, ranging from pizza and pasta sauces, to tomato paste and juice. It also processes 13 types of beans.

Almost all of it is sold in cans made of steel and tinplate — cans that come from a company in Philadelphia.

"There are no can manufacturers in Canada," said Sun-Brite owner John Iacobelli. 

"There used to be, but they moved south to the States probably 10, 12 years ago … to consolidate their facilities in the U.S."

U.S. President Donald Trump slapped a 25 per cent tax on steel and aluminum from Canada last month, in an attempt to build back America's steel industry.

Iacobelli wants Canada to claw back its own 25 per cent reciprocal steel and aluminum tariffs to avoid passing on the cumulative taxes to the consumers.

He says Canadians should be aware of an expected increase in the cost on Canadian-grown food. Canned food products may see an increase in cost of $0.25 to $0.40 per can as a result.

"I've been fighting this tariff that we put on ourselves. There's no need for it."

"We have a tariff on cans coming in [to Canada]. The one thing that the federal government did not do is put competitive products that are packed in the U.S. that come into Canada — like say tomato products, bean products — there's no tariff on that."

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Sylvanus Afesorgbor says he isn't surprised the tariff-trickle down effect on cans is hitting the consumer at the grocery store.

The professor at the University of Guelph's department of food, agricultural and resource economics says it's because of the nature of the two countries highly integrated supply chain.