USA TODAY International Edition
US-Canada trade war traps travelers
Even the common candle subject to border tariffs
DETROIT – Laura Pineault had no idea she was about to step onto the front lines of a trade war when her mother, Diane, a massage therapist in Windsor, Ontario, asked her to pick up some candles at a Detroit package drop.
It’s common, Diane Pineault explained, for Canadians who live near the border to have items sent to U.S. addresses to save on shipping. Candles are much less expensive in the USA.
Laura, like her mother, is a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, and she was tasked with acting as Mom’s import agent, going through the commercial line on the Canadian side of the tunnel that connects Detroit and Windsor. She filled out computerized forms for what she expected to be a routine process.
She was unaware that candles were among the U.S. products slapped with Canadian tariffs in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s 25 percent levy on Canadian steel.
She was surprised when she was told to bring a candle into the border station. An agent inspected it, consulted with a colleague and determined it was subject to a 10 percent tariff on top of the 8 percent commercial tax.
Laura paid $40 on the spot on the $230 worth of candles and was on her way. “It seemed like I was importing something really bad,” she said. “It’s a candle.”
Such incidents are becoming more
“We’re seeing the border service officers looking at the items on the list to determine whether the surtaxes need to be applied. Grocery shoppers are saying, ‘Hey, we’re getting pulled over more, we’re being charged these taxes.’ ” Laurie Tannous Dual U.S.-Canadian citizen
common at border cities such as Detroit and Windsor. Each day, thousands of visitors, workers, shoppers and tourists cross the Detroit River that separates the two cities, and delays and misunderstandings have cropped up with increasing frequency.
Closer scrutiny
Laurie Tannous, an immigration lawyer and vice president of government relations at Farrow, a Canadian freight handler, noted that the region’s many cross-border grocery shoppers who had zipped through customs with at best minor delays face greater scrutiny.
“We’re seeing the border service officers looking at the items on the list to determine whether the surtaxes need to be applied,” she said. “Grocery shoppers are saying, ‘Hey, we’re getting pulled over more, we’re being charged these taxes.’ ”
This in-your-face experience of a trade war is not how most Americans feel the effects of higher tariffs. For the majority, tariffs may translate into higher prices at the grocery store or car dealership, but those increases may be masked by seasonal shortages and competitive factors.
Most over-the-road truckers crossing the border don’t worry about tariffs because freight-forwarding companies such as Farrow typically put up bonds to cover duties that are calculated and paid after the fact. Tannous fears that could change if the trade war escalates.
Forcing an unloading and inspection of commercial truckloads at the border could create massive traffic jams on the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor and slow the pace of commerce, hurting the economies of both nations.
Farmers brace themselves
For farmers, the tariff dispute adds another layer of complexity to the myriad challenges they face.
Bobby Nedbalek grows cotton and grain sorghum on his property in Sinton, Texas, near the busy port city of Corpus Christi. He said he has heard anecdotes about large shipments of Texas agriculture goods bound for China being diverted to other nations within hours of the tariffs taking effect.
“For a while, there was a horrible emergency created over that situation,” Nedbalek said. “It was a reaction that hit us right between the eyes.
“As farmers … we always have tariffs one way or another. But it was never 25 percent,” said Nedbalek, who sits on the board of the National Sorghum Producers. “We’re counting on negotiators to settle this as soon as possible. It has impacted the market and the movement commodities we harvest. We’re the first ones to feel the pressure if China isn’t buying what they’re contracted to.”
Corpus Christi is another of America’s gateway cities, its port hosting more than 7,000 vessels each year. The majority of the port’s haul – 86 percent of it – is shipments of petroleum and crude oil.
Talk of tariffs being applied to liquefied natural gas heated up this summer, but those levies have not materialized.
If they do, it could have an impact on the Corpus Christi area, which is home to more than a dozen industrial plants that are in various stages of development.
For now, officials remain hopeful. “While the current trade disputes between China and the U.S. are certainly creating short-term headwinds in consumer products, technology, agriculture and crude oil, we do not foresee any long-term structural impacts on trade with China,” said Sean Strawbridge, the Port of Corpus Christi’s CEO.
“Their economy is much more reliant on trade with the U.S. than ours, and their growing appetite for energy creates a natural market for American energy production as their consumer base grows,” he said.