Trump tariffs affect ag industry, including exempt products: CFA

While Canada was spared from Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs, the instability has caused stress among producers across the country.

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to put 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods on Jan. 29, Winkler-area potato farmer Juston Schmidt worked to ship as many potatoes to the States as possible before they came into effect Feb. 4, 2025.

“We were a little concerned at first,” the vice-president of Schmidt Farms Ltd. said. “I think the concern has faded into just coming to a conclusion of this is just the new way we’re going to do things.”

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on Feb. 2, and the next day, President Trump suspended the tariffs for 30 days, eventually exempting CUSMA-compliant goods from the levies. For now, Schmidt’s exports to American customers are tariff-free, but he says pivoting to sell exclusively Canadian buyers would be bad for business.

“I hope that never happens,” he said. “In the fresh sector, we would have a market in Canada. It’s just, Toronto is a lot further away than the U.S.”

Schmidt adds tariffs on the agricultural sector would also harm American potato farmers.

“The fresh potatoes obviously start growing sooner in the south, so potatoes come from Florida or Missouri or Minnesota to Canada in summer sometimes. We export more in the winter months.”

But not all potato farmers can shift their sales like Schmidt can. The Manitoba Seed Potato Growers Association issued a statement about the “dire” situation for their growers, whose product cannot be stored. The association says they estimate 15-20 per cent of this year’s yield will need to be composted or discarded.

“Unfortunately, traditional programs like crop insurance do not offer protection for market-driven losses of this nature, leaving the financial burden solely on individual farms,” the association said in a statement.