"This is something that is cause for significant concern."
Those are the words of Cam Dahl, General Manager for Manitoba Pork Council, reacting to tariffs that took effect Tuesday morning. U.S. President Donald Trump has slapped Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent import tariffs and raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 20 per cent.
Dahl says the industry was hoping for some sort of agreement that would have prevented these tariffs from taking effect.
"My first reaction is disappointment that our largest trading partner has chosen to impose a 25 per cent tariff on every one of our exports," says Dahl. "And the second response is concern."
Dahl says his concern is for the pork sector and hog producers, noting the U.S. represents our largest market. He says when you consider both live animals as well as pork, it represents about 40 per cent of our exports.
According to Dahl, in 2024, Manitoba exported more than $400 million worth of pork into the United States. He notes this is coming from places like the processing plant in Winkler, the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, the HyLife plant in Neepawa, and Maple Leaf's processing plant in Winnipeg. In addition, he notes over three million live pigs are exported for finishing and processing in the United States.
"Suddenly today, all of those products, the pigs going across the border today and the pork that we ship there every day, it's 25 per cent more expensive," explains Dahl. "And so that is definitely going to have an impact on the demand for the product that Manitoba produces."
Dahl says the pork sector supports 22,000 jobs in Manitoba, in nearly every region of our province, contributing $2.3 billion worth of gross domestic product (GDP) every year.
"So, this is going to have an impact on jobs, and it is going to have an impact on the economy," he states.
In fact, Dahl says if we do not see a resolution to this trade war, hog barns will inevitably start closing in Manitoba.
"How long that's going to take? I don't know the answer to that question yet," admits Dahl. "But I think if this is something that carries on for a longer period of time, I definitely think we are going to see barn closures as well as reductions in processing."
And, when you consider all that Manitoba sends into the United States, Dahl says he does not know how we can avoid a recession from this move. He notes when the economy starts to take a hit and jobs start to be impacted, this will hurt every Manitoban.
Dahl urges Manitobans to check the labels when making purchases and to try and buy Manitoba or Canadian products. He says today's implementation of tariffs will probably not have an immediate impact on prices in the grocery store. However, he notes that will change if we start to see retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.
Meanwhile, Dahl says there is concern within the agriculture industry in our province because it is unclear how the impacts are going to shake out. He notes it is not even clear whether or not this is the last set of tariffs on the industry.
"The President has announced that April 2nd he's going to be looking at putting additional tariffs, retaliatory tariffs in place and he has specifically mentioned agriculture," notes Dahl. "So, there is significant concern about the impacts and concern about future tariffs as well."
Dahl invites any pork producers with questions, to call Manitoba Pork Council.
With files from The Canadian Press