Q&A: Chaos and uncertainty of U.S. tariffs impacting Waterloo region businesses

The ongoing tension around news of U.S. tariffs against Canada are having real effects on some Waterloo region companies.

The CEOs of two local companies that provide two very different services joined CBC Radio's The Morning Edition with host Craig Norris to discuss how the tariffs have impacted their businesses and plans they're making should the tariffs last for some time.

Jennifer Appleby Vines is the CEO of Georgette Packaging in Kitchener and Dave Caputo is the CEO of Trusscore, which is a materials science company that produces sustainable building materials and has locations in Palmerston, Ontario and Calgary, Alberta. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of this article.

Craig Norris: Jennifer, what does your company do? 

Jennifer Appleby Vines: We make custom printed branded packaging. We are a packaging broker, so we help mostly food businesses. Our niche is to navigate what can be a pretty technical buy when the customer is buying. Doesn't sound like a donut box would be a technical buy, but it can be, there's a lot to navigate. So we help source, quote, get all of that organized. 

Craig Norris: What percentage of your business relies on the U.S.?

Jennifer Appleby Vines: In any given year, on average, it's about 75 per cent and we buy about 75 per cent of our products in Canada. 

Craig Norris: Dave, give us a sense of what your company does and what percentage of your business relies on the U.S.?

Dave Caputo: Trusscore is a material science company for sustainable building materials with the ultimate vision of creating a true painted drywall alternative. Our business initially had a lot of success in agriculture. A lot of people used polymer based panels to line barns and that sort of thing. But over the past five years we've been introduced to the garage and that's what's really driven our business in the United States. And over the past five years we went from maybe 10 per cent of our business to the U.S. to 60 per cent last year. So it's a super important market for us.

Craig Norris: Jennifer, how are tariffs affecting your business? 

Jennifer Appleby Vines: The biggest thing that's happening is the uncertainty. After the election happened, we definitely started having conversations with clients about being worried about this. Then the inauguration came and the night when [Trump] first announced the tariffs, I had a text from a customer who is in Santa Barbara. And he said, "I guess we're enemies now." And, you know, "am I still gonna get my packaging?" And that's really causing people to not want to commit to spend money. Uncertainty is a nuclear bomb for economies. People need to know, businesses need to plan and whether that's our business or the businesses we're serving. And if they can't plan, they're going to hold on to their money. We've seen a huge, huge drop in people just committing to buying in the last three months. 

Craig Norris: What about you, Dave?

Dave Caputo: Trusscore has two plants, one in Palmerston, Ontario and the other one in Calgary, Alberta and these plants run 24/7. So it's a continuous manufacturing process. And so every day, two or three trucks leave these facilities and two of those 3 trucks could be headed to the US or all three could be headed to the US. And so every morning I wake up and I think what's going on with the tariffs? Am I dreaming or am I living in a simulation? And a chaos monkey is changing the rules literally every couple of days. We have to spend a lot of time thinking about what shipments are going out, Who are they going to, Do they know what a tariff is? Are they are they expecting to clear it?