We dodged a bullet … or did we?

Unless you are completely off the grid, you have been following the bizarre developments over the last several days and weeks with stunned amazement. The proposal coming from the new American administration was as unprecedented as it was potentially damaging to the economies of Canada and Ontario … a 25% tariff on virtually all goods exported from Canada to the U.S.

In order to make this happen, President Trump would have called the import of fentanyl and illegal immigrants across our shared border an “emergency” to get out from under what is otherwise a binding and legal free trade agreement our country has with the United States called The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

For now, it’s not happening. Like Mexico, Canada was able to cobble together a reprieve of sorts involving promises about increased border security, that resulted in a delay in implementation of the tariffs for ONE MONTH.

What happens in March is anyone’s guess … it’s fair to say only one person really knows that and he sits in the Oval Office of the White House at present.

Here is what our Executive Director, James Hamilton posted on Linkedin in the days prior to February 3rd (when these tariffs were first supposed to start):

“I’m not an economist so I will leave the analysis of who this will hurt, where and why to others, but one silver lining might be used vehicle prices going down and supply going up.

For years now, the strong US dollar up against our weaker one, made buying used cars in Canada a no-brainer for US dealers. They could practically pay retail prices here and still turn a profit down south.

A 25% tariff on exported goods, if it does include used vehicles as I suspect it will, would put an immediate end to vehicle exports, leaving those units here for dealers and consumers in Ontario and the rest of Canada to buy.