The president of the Topeka Chamber of Commerce will be in Ottawa this week in an attempt to strengthen trade ties amid tariff uncertainty, saying that tariffs are impacting Kansas businesses.
In an interview with BNNBloomberg.ca last week Juliet Abdel said the organization represents over 1,000 businesses in the state of Kansas. According to figures from the federal government based on 2024 data, the region exports US$2.6 billion in goods to Canada annually and imports $2.1 billion in goods from Canada each year. Meanwhile about 98 Canadian owned businesses are located in the state. According to Abdel around 20 per cent of the workforce in Shawnee County, Kansas is connected to international trade.
“What we have continued to say is, our position on these tariffs is, we view tariffs as a tax on our businesses that have to then pay for these and it’s passed on to consumers,” Abdel said.
“When consumers go to pick up an item, they’re already starting to see this 10 per cent, in some instances, on services because of this unknown.”
Abdel added that the goal is to continue to build on existing relationships during the visit to Canada’s capital. Some of the organizations she will be meeting with in Ottawa include Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Administration, Ottawa Tourism as well as the Mayors of Ottawa and Newmarket.
“Canadians in general, while they’ve been discouraged a little bit with all these conversations governmentally, they’re very receptive from the business lens in having these conversations together,” she said.
“They know and understand that there’s been a value that’s been felt seen and is intrinsic in both of our communities and they’re very excited to continue that. They have shared that they want to continue to be a partner and of course they’ve also come out and shared their particular perspectives on what’s happening and some of them have frustrations, of course, that they feel throughout it.”
Going forward, Abdel said she is hoping to see tariff exemptions start to show up across certain industries. She added that the Topeka Chamber of Commerce has pushed to expand and support the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
‘Buy Canadian’
As trade tensions continue, some Canadians are choosing to “buy Canadian” in response. According to a Narrative Research poll from earlier this month, around 68 per cent of respondents said they are actively looking for Canadian products when shopping.
Meanwhile, some, including Loblaw CEO Per Bank, say the trend may not last.
From Abdel’s perspective, she said the sentiment appears to be largely geared toward the U.S. government and “not necessarily toward” the U.S. commerce sector.
“Everyone that we’ve talked to has been super receptive to us coming out there, has been asking those questions of what are our next steps that we can start planning for and have we considered these additional things,” she said adding that organizations are increasingly interested in discussions.
“I think that it always depends on who that is targeted toward, but it’s definitely not felt from the business organizations standpoint.”
Tourism
As trade tensions have persisted, fewer Canadians are traveling to the U.S.
Data from Statistics Canada, published last week, found that the number of Canadian residents and non-residents returning to the country by either air or automobile fell for the third consecutive month to 4.5 million in April, marking an annual decline of 15.2 per cent.
“I know that has been an industry that’s already felt some declines during this time with Canadian tourism being one of the top foreign visitors that come to the U.S.,” Abdel said.
She added that the tourism industry has downstream impacts on businesses and supply chains.
“But even from the standpoint of travellers that are coming and travellers feed our ecosystem by staying in our hotels by shopping, dining, and doing business, and those are external dollars that are coming in and investing in our community,” Abdel said.
