Toronto steel manufacturer says U.S. tariffs have already hit business hard
Conquest Steel in North York has lost 20% of its business, manager says
Though U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum only went into effect Wednesday, the manager of a Toronto steel products manufacturer says the business has already taken a major hit.
"The threat of the tariffs was enough to damage our business and we felt the consequences immediately," says Rahim Moloo, managing director of Conquest Steel.
"Well before the tariffs were finalized we received cancellations from our American customers, trapping a lot of inventory. And Canadian distributors decided to hold off on taking new orders and shipping to the U.S. because of the uncertainty," he told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Wednesday.
Conquest Steel, based out of North York, designs and manufactures steel landscaping products. Moloo says it lost roughly 20 per cent of its business when U.S. President Donald Trump began musing about stiff tariffs on Canadian exports.
On Tuesday, after a morning of Trump lashing out against Canada and threatening staggering 50 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, the White House announced the import levies would be scaled back to 25 per cent. The tariffs went into effect at midnight.
Moloo says the impacts on Conquest Steel will ripple through its supply chain. The company sources its steel from Hamilton, screws and other hardware from St. Catharines and cardboard products from a partner in Woodbridge.
"So there's a lot of trickle down to all sectors of the economy," he told host David Common.
Moloo says he supports both the province and Ottawa taking retaliatory measures. The federal government has announced tariffs on $29.8 billion worth of American goods in response to Trump's levies on steel and aluminum.
Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc are heading to Washington, D.C. to meet with top officials in the Trump administration.
But for Moloo, the damage has already been done, and he says he'll be looking to do business differently moving forward.
"It's not about whether the tariffs are 25 per cent or 50 per cent, the way we are doing business has to change. Although it is in both countries' interest to work out a deal, I'm not sure it's a great idea to rely on a deal from somebody who has ripped up a previous deal that they made — who's temperamental and can change on a whim," he said, referring to Trump.
Trump appears to want to rip up the existing Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), a free trade deal he negotiated during his first term and once called "the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA."
You can listen to the full discussion with Moloo in the video player above.