Canadian furniture industry still ‘reeling’ after Trump pauses tariff spike
Global News
Canada’s kitchen cabinet industry says U.S. tariffs remain devastating despite Trump pausing planned increases, with companies warning of layoffs and lost profits.
The Canadian Kitchen Cabinet Association says while it welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump’s postponement of tariff increases on furniture, cabinets and vanities, the industry is still being devastated by the duties.
Trump hit the sector with 25 per cent tariffs in October but paused a promised increase to a total of 30 per cent for upholstered furniture and to 50 per cent for cabinets and vanities that was set to take effect Jan. 1.
“Yes, 50 per cent is a relief. But our industry is still reeling from the 25 per cent,” said Luke Elias, the association’s vice-president.
“You just can’t mitigate that in the manufacturing environment overnight.”
Kitchen cabinet manufacturing is a $4.7-billion industry in Canada and Elias said the sector exports about $600 million worth of product annually. Trump’s tariffs delivered another blow to an industry already dealing with a soft Canadian housing market, he added.
Manitoba-based Elias Woodwork employs more than 400 people and exports about 80 per cent of its product to the United States. Company president Ralph Fehr said the 25 per cent tariffs are damaging, but a 50 per cent duty would have been catastrophic.
“Who in the U.S. would want to pay that much extra for Canadian content?” he said. “I just don’t think that would have worked out real well.”
Fehr said his company uses American materials — such as hardwood lumber from the Appalachians — and turns them into finished products it then sells to customers in the United States.
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