Nova Scotians should expect “short-term pain” from U.S. tariffs

By: Lukas Kohler and Dylan Follett

Nova Scotians should brace for the impact of new U.S. tariffs battering sectors of the province’s economy, say experts, government officials and business leaders.  

On Aug. 22, the United States levied 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods, escalating the trade war between the two countries. According to trade data from last year, around $279 million — or just over six per cent — of Nova Scotia’s $4.6 billion of exports to the United States would be affected by the tariffs.

“There’s no doubt about it that there’s going to be some short-term pain felt within the entire Canadian economy,” says Don Bureaux, president and CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. “And that’s true here in Nova Scotia.”

Nova Scotia is the fourth worst-hit province in the country by these new tariffs, behind British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Nationally, approximately $27.6 billion of Canadian goods are to be impacted by these tariffs.

“When you have a major disruption [like the U.S. tariffs] in a major market, the short-term impact of that could certainly be job losses, could certainly be businesses having to really retool and reallocate how they do business,” Bureaux says.

Sean Fraser, the federal minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency — which provides tariff support and other business loans in the region — spoke about the new tariffs at a press conference on Sept. 2.

“This is not some esoteric concept of deep economic philosophy. This is a bread-and-butter issue for families,” said Fraser. “There are people who have been impacted. There are people who will be impacted.” 

During the press conference, Fraser announced federal support for businesses affected by previous rounds of tariffs. 

Through their Regional Tariff Response Initiative, the federal government has pledged $1.5 billion nationally to support businesses affected by the new tariffs. However, funding applications are not yet open, and it has not yet been decided how much Nova Scotia will receive.

How will this impact Nova Scotia?

This round of tariffs affects goods in almost 380 broad trade categories, but Nova Scotia only exports meaningful amounts of goods to the United States in 130 of those categories. 

The tariffs don’t affect Nova Scotia’s top exports — tires, paper and seafood — but hit some categories that account for tens of millions of dollars in trade. Products like plastics, chemicals and telecommunications hardware contribute to the $279 million total impact.

Almost 70 per cent of Nova Scotia’s total exports went to the United States in 2025.

This is the third group of U.S. tariffs imposed on Canada. A general 10 per cent tariff on all goods not covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (about 19 per cent of national trade) was imposed on July 24, and 25 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper on June 8. 

The Canadian federal government has pledged approximately $32 billion to support businesses and workers impacted since the trade war started in 2025. After the U.S. tariffs were announced on Aug. 22, the federal government retaliated with dollar-for-dollar countertariffs effective Sept. 8.

In an email statement to the Dalhousie Gazette, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency said it has approved 131 applications worth more than $67.9 million across the region. 

The agency said the support helped protect over 1,800 jobs and create more than 500 new ones, but did not clarify how the funding is distributed between the provinces.

When asked by the Gazette what is being done federally to ensure that Nova Scotia gets appropriate support, Fraser — who is also justice minister — said, “When we develop these programs, we look to ensure that there is regional fairness based not only on the population, but on the potential impact of the given policy decision that you’re trying to respond to, Nova Scotia has certain vulnerabilities here.”

The Halifax Honey Co. is a local business that exports Nova Scotian honey to the United States. Its CEO, Jake Mahoney, said in an email statement to the Gazette that the recent tariffs have made it almost impossible for the company to justify exporting its products across the border.

“A 50 per cent tariff completely changes the economics of selling a relatively inexpensive food product like ours across the border,” said Mahoney. “We sell bottles of hot honey … we’re not selling a $1,000 product where you can potentially absorb another $10 or $20 somewhere in the margin.”

The company is looking at moving its products from U.S. shelves to other stores across Canada, saying tariffs reinforce the importance of not depending on one export market. 

“For us, we’d much rather take the energy we would have spent trying to overcome a 50 per cent tariff and put it toward getting Halifax Honey onto more shelves, restaurant tables and pizzas across Canada,” said Mahoney.

Dal expert says “It’s a political thing”

According to Lori Turnbull, a Dalhousie University professor in the faculty of management and the department of political science, tariffs are essentially an extra tax on exporting or importing goods, depending on who enforces them.

“I don’t think Donald Trump knows what tariffs are sometimes,” Turnbull says. “Because of the language around it, it’s very adversarial and hostile.”

Turnbull explained that when the United States imposes a tariff, American importers have to pay more for goods from Canada. Then the increased costs of tariffs are often passed on to the consumer through higher prices.

“[Trump] doesn’t want to say, ‘I don’t like Canada, so I’m going to make Americans pay more for their products,’” says Turnbull. “That’s a lousy political strategy; he’s not going to say that.”

To Turnbull, tariffs are more of a negotiation tool than an economic tool.

“I’ve never heard it advised as an economic tool,” she says. “It’s a political thing.”

Turnbull says the problem is many Canadian businesses rely on U.S. imports, and if they have to pay more while already getting hit, it makes it much harder for them to survive. 

Feds pledge more support

At the event in Dartmouth on Sept. 2, Fraser announced $14.1 million in federal investments to assist Nova Scotia businesses affected by previous tariffs enforced by the United States.

The announcement was made at Ace Machining Ltd., a company that received $400,000 from the federal government. They were one of 27 businesses to receive support.

“Trade wars have real consequences, affecting the jobs and livelihoods of hard-working people 

on both sides of the border,” said Ron Wallace, president of Ace Machining. “When the first round of U.S. tariffs was introduced, we decided to remove American suppliers from consideration during our equipment procurement process.”

Wallace said Ace Machining spent the new money on a Japanese CNC milling machine.

The company completely removed U.S. suppliers from its business last year — part of a larger shift away from reliance on U.S. imports and exports in Canada, one that Bureaux and Fraser both say is crucial to Canada’s long-term prosperity.

“This is going to be a difficult number of months, potentially years,” Fraser says. “But the alternative to not standing up for Canada now is to forever stand down and let the United States dictate our policy, and that is an outcome that we will never accept.”