“The US administration has seen it. Your government has seen it. Canadians deserve to see it,” Majumdar wrote, arguing that the standard justification for secrecy (i.e. protecting Canada’s negotiating position) no longer holds now that talks have collapsed entirely.
Majumdar stopped short of criticising the decision to walk away, acknowledging that “Canada cannot accept a bad deal or one-sided tariffs that would cause permanent harm to our industries and deindustrialize our country.”
Body blow for business
According to CP24, Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO Candace Laing called the breakdown “a body blow to North American competitiveness in this self-defeating trade saga,” adding that “a whopping, non-absorbable tariff is not sustainable or viable for business.”
The CFIB’s Kelly noted that 40% of small Canadian exporters are directly in the line of fire from the new US tariffs, which cover 18 pages of products including machinery and equipment, wood and building products, plastic and packaging, food and beverages, and arts and creative products.
Critically, Kelly pointed out that the pain runs in both directions: more than 50% of small businesses import from the United States, meaning Canada’s retaliatory tariffs targeting dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics from September 8, compound rather than cushion the damage for many firms.