Small Nova Scotian businesses halt shipping to U.S. amid tariff concerns

When an American customer called Scott Bowers to balk about an extra $104 US charge on his $180 US purchase, the owner of the Curling Store said he wasn't sure what to do.

"He ended up rejecting that package," Bowers said in an interview with CBC News.

That left the Dartmouth businessman in a pickle because he had to issue a refund to his customer but wasn't able to get the product returned due to the prohibitive cost.

He said getting the delivery back into Canada would have required him to pay a shipping fee of $235 US, which he decided not to do.

After a few more similar incidents, Bowers halted shipments to the United States.

The Curling Store is one of a few small Nova Scotian businesses that have stopped sending deliveries to the U.S. amid the ongoing tariff war. Bowers made his announcement in a social media post Wednesday, saying the store is still able to ship products to the U.S. if customers are willing to pay extra fees.

"We hope this is temporary and appreciate all of the support from U.S. customers to this point," the post reads.

This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month to end an exemption that allowed small packages of goods that originated in China and Hong Kong and were worth less than $800 US to enter the U.S. tax-free. That went into effect last week.

Bowers said an estimated 95 per cent of his products, from duffel bags to brooms, are made in China and most of his shipments to the U.S. came in below the $800 US benchmark. That meant that until recently, most of his American customers weren't faced with extra taxes when picking up their deliveries.

He said it's difficult on his end to track what the final cost to American customers might be, since it depends on the product's country of origin and the state the shipment is being delivered to.

"I'm going to get customers that are not going to be aware of those charges until the product shows up at the door and they're going to be unwilling, or unable, to pay more than double what the product is worth," he said.

Classy Cards Creative, based in Windsor, N.S., has also decided to stop shipping products to the U.S. Like the Curling Store, many of the stationery company's products are manufactured in China, according to owner Cassy Collins.

About 70 per cent of Classy Cards' customers are based in the U.S.

"If tariffs can come back down to a reasonable price, then we can just adjust our prices a little bit to make up that difference and ship everything over," she said. "Either [that or] we have to put those costs onto our buyers, but no one realistically is going to pay $300 for a $100 order."

Customers have generally been understanding of the situation, Collins said, but it has been difficult since there hasn't been a lot of clarity on how much the extra expense will be for them.

Possible options

Collins said until the exemption is reinstated, she is thinking of setting up a drop shipping company in the U.S., so the product would be shipped directly from manufacturers to customers. 

She said she's also looked into finding other manufacturers, a process that can take up to a couple of months.

"Just the beginning of this year, our first quarter has been amazing. It just sucks that all of a sudden, everything stops, because we know people want our products, but we just can't get them out there," she said. 

For Bowers, things are a bit more stable, he said, since only about 10 per cent of his sales are to the U.S. His plan moving forward is to focus on Canadian clients.