US-Canada ketchup war could impact Ohio factory

OTTAWA, Canada — A ketchup war is brewing, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is about to step into the middle of it.

Representing the United States is Heinz, which put 700 Canadian workers out of work in 2014 when it closed a plant in Canada’s tomato capital, a small southern Ontario town called Leamington. Anger and hand-wringing ensued.

Representing Canada is French’s, which began producing ketchup in Canada after the Heinz closure. In its bid for Canadian dollars, French’s even put a maple leaf on the bottle. Canadians rejoiced and bought French’s ketchup.

And on Sunday, Trudeau’s government is hitting back against the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian metals by slapping 16.6 billion in Canadian dollars ($12.6 billion) in tariffs on dozens of American-made products, including Heinz.

With widespread anger over President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and his comments about Trudeau after the recent G-7 summit, there have been growing calls for Canadians to buy local.

Andrew Mitchell, president of Select Food Products, said French’s has roughly doubled its market share in Canada for ketchup to 8 or 9 percent nationally, propelled by the made-in-Canada message, though Heinz still is the market leader.

Ketchup, which is due to attract a 10 percent Canadian tariff as of Sunday, is one of scores of U.S. products to be hit by levies in addition to U.S.-made steel and aluminum.

Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, where Kraft Heinz is based, told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at a Senate hearing last week that he’s worried about the effect of the Canadian tariff on the company’s U.S. ketchup production in Fremont, Ohio.

“The solution for them to be able to continue to sell their product in Canada would be to shut down their U.S. factory and move it to Canada,” Toomey said. Ross didn’t respond.

Kraft Heinz said it opposes all taxes and tariffs on its products.