WHAT CANADA IS TARGETING AND WHY
FROM INFLATABLE BOATS TO KETCHUP TO FELT PENS, CANADA’S RETALIATORY TARIFFS AGAINST THE U.S. TARGET A LAUNDRY LIST OF SPECIFIC — AND OFTEN WEIRD — ITEMS. BUT IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT MANY OF THE PRODUCTS COME FROM BATTLEGROUND ELECTORAL DISTRICTS. MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH, MAURA FORREST AND STUART THOMSON REPORT.
SLEEPING BAGS
According to a published list of the party’s targets, the Democrats will be zeroing in on battleground districts in California and Colorado in the 2018 midterm election. One thing those two states have in common is selling sleeping bags to Canada and, now, a tariff on them. The Democrats are targeting no less than eight districts in California, the biggest sleeping bag exporting state to Canada. Wiggy’s — an outdoor apparel company based in Grand Junction, Colorado, that supplies gear to the U.S. military — is based in a district represented by the vulnerable Republican Scott Tipton. His district leans slightly Republican, compared to the national average, but could be one of the first to go in a Democratic wave election.
BREAKFAST
Breakfast items feature heavily in the tariffs list. Unsurprisingly, Florida, the state home to President Trump’s Mara-Lago resort, is where we get the vast majority of the nonfrozen orange juice targeted by Canadian tariffs. Starbucks looks to be the loser for roasted coffee imports, since Washington state, with three districts targeted by Democrats in mid-term elections this fall, is responsible for $198 million of Canada’s $526 million in imports from the U.S. Meanwhile, the ultimate losers in the strawberry jam category are likely Californians, who produce about three-quarters of strawberries in the U.S. Maple syrup is also targeted. As a producers’ association in Quebec — what Conservative MP Maxime Bernier likes to call the “maple syrup cartel” — keeps quotas on the province’s maple syrup, U.S. producers have been increasing their imports to Canada. Quebec’s market grew by about 60 per cent since the early 2000s, according to the Montreal Economic Institute, while Maine’s market grew 131 per cent and Vermont’s 254 per cent. Maine only has two congressional districts and Democrats are looking to depose a Republican in one of them.
FELT PENS
Pennsylvania, a major battleground in the upcoming midterm elections, supplies about $7 million worth of felt pens to Canada each year. The Democrats are targeting six districts in the state. The tariff could also be seen as a symbolic shot at Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, is synonymous with pens after the Parker Pens company was founded there. Market forces have already done most of the damage there, though: In 2009, Parker Pens closed its Janesville operations. There’s another reason Canada might be going after felt pens: In one of his few decisions that didn’t break from White House norms, Trump is using the same type of pen for executive orders that Barack Obama and George W. Bush used. You guessed it: a felt pen.
SOY SAUCE (AND OTHER WISCONSIN SPECIALTIES)
A long list of tariff categories seem to be targeting the state of Wisconsin, farmers from there were apparently responsible for putting some of the harshest anti-Canada words into the president’s mouth in April 2017. For example, among U.S. states, Wisconsin is the top exporter of handkerchiefs, tissues, tablecloths, soy sauce and fruit spreads (the category in which we are penalizing strawberry jam, specifically); it is also the state from which we get the secondmost yogurt and toilet paper (also targeted by tariffs).
APPLIANCES
The new tariffs target dishwashers, fridges, lawn mowers, washing machines and water heaters, many of which come from electoral swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that depend heavily on manufacturing. All three states featured on a U.S. Chamber of Commerce list of the 12 states that would be hardest hit if the U.S. were to withdraw from NAFTA. Trump took all three states in 2016, winning Wisconsin by fewer than 25,000 votes. Tariffs on dishwasher detergents, soaps and skin creams also seem to be directed primarily at Ohio, as does a tariff on “candles, tapers and the like not including those for birthdays, Christmas or other festive occasions.” Canada imported nearly $40 million worth of candles from Ohio in 2017.
KETCHUP
U.S.-produced mustard and ketchup are facing new tariffs. In the ketchup category, it’s no surprise that Heinz rakes in a big market share. Of the more than $264 million in ketchup that Canada imports from the states annually, $81.4 million comes from Heinz’s home state and congressional battleground state Pennsylvania.
INFLATABLE BOATS
This is an odd one, not least because Canada doesn’t actually import that many inflatable boats — just $2.4 million worth from the U.S. last year, in fact. Canada’s biggest supplier of American inflatable boats is South Carolina, likely due to the Zodiac Nautic manufacturing plant in Summerville, S.C. Canada is taking aim at other boats, too, including sailboats (also big in South Carolina) and motorboats, many of which come from Florida.
BEER KEGS
Pottstown, Pennsylvania, is the home of the American Keg Company, the only steel beer keg manufacturer in the U.S. Pottstown also happens to be in Pennsylvania’s 6th congressional district, a competitive district currently held by the Republicans that the Democrats are targeting in the midterms.