Canada’s farmers face rising equipment costs from U.S. tariffs amid harvest

Steel and aluminum tariffs have been raising costs for Canadian farmers, with things like tractors and the parts used to repair them have increased.

As Canada’s farmers keep an eye on market impacts due to trade uncertainty, they’re also facing issues surrounding the equipment they use every day with U.S. duties raising the costs for not only tractors and cultivators, but also the parts needed to keep them working.

Though the broad U.S. tariffs imposed on numerous countries on April 2 did not include Canada, it still faces duties on steel, aluminum and the automobile industry.

Those tariffs on steel and aluminum are creating a bottleneck for many farmers.

“The tariffs that have been imposed on the steel and aluminum industry, in particular, have obviously increased the cost of equipment overall, including the parts to repair equipment that farmers currently own,” said Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

“So there’s a lot of uneasiness out there when you look at the increased cost of borrowing these days. Many of our purchases are financed, so that cost has gone up because of interest increases, but also certainly availability of parts.”

Currie’s not alone in his concerns.

Canada’s farmers have expressed unease over the impact of tariffs on their equipment since at least April, with some at the time saying they were unclear whether such equipment was subject to the duties or Canada’s retaliatory tariffs.

Months later, manufacturers are feeling the pressure.