What It Means For Our Members

As you are no doubt aware, the United States has announced potential tariffs that will directly impact the Canadian tooling and machining industry.

After coming within hours of initiating 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports to the United States on February 4, the American administration has announced that these tariffs will not be implemented for at least an additional month.

To be clear, the threat of tariffs has not gone away—there remains a strong possibility that they will be implemented a month from now. We are awaiting further updates on this matter.

The U.S. federal government claims authority to enact the proposed tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), citing national security concerns related to border control and drug trafficking.

How This Affects Tooling & Machining

The broad-based nature of the tariff means that virtually all of our members will be impacted. Even if your customers are based in Canada, it’s possible that your final end user is based in the United States or otherwise depends on the reliable flow of cross-border goods and services.

Specific concerns include significantly decreased demand from U.S.-based customers, delays in the movement of goods across the Canadian/U.S. border, and the general dampening effect that uncertainty has on businesses.

While  today’s reports that the U.S. tariff on Canada and Mexico will be paused for 30 days is considered a positive development, it also means the uncertainty surrounding the issue will remain with us for some time.

What You Can Do Now

The situation is changing with each passing hour, and no doubt by the time you read this the situation will have evolved further. However, irrespective of the latest information we encourage our members to:

Review Contracts & Costs – Understand the language in your existing agreements/ orders with respect to which party bears the cost of these tariffs and how this impacts your operations and finances.

Stay Updated – The CTMA will provide ongoing updates as this situation develops.

Engage & Advocate – Share your concerns with us so we can represent your interests effectively.

The impact of these tariffs is significant, but together, we can work toward a solution that protects our industry and keeps Canadian manufacturing strong.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss how this affects your business, please email me .

We will continue to keep you informed and advocate on your behalf.

Robert Cattle, Executive Director, CTMA

A Message From The President of CTMA, Louis Jahn 

This is an incredibly challenging time, and having strong guidance is more crucial than ever. The CTMA is committed to doing everything we can to support Canada’s manufacturing sector.

The reality is that the CTMA, along with our member companies, has always maintained a close, collaborative relationship with customers, manufacturers, and trade associations in the U.S. Our joint efforts, particularly in the automotive sector, have been seamless and mutually beneficial. However, looking ahead, our biggest challenge lies in the flood of heavily subsidized tooling from China, which disrupts our ability to compete effectively in both Canada and the U.S.

Our goal is to continue working closely with tooling companies and associations on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border to tackle challenges in the automotive and heavy truck industries. It’s also essential that we raise awareness among our political leaders about the unfair trading practices we are facing from China. These practices are directly affecting job creation and expansion in our industry.

During this gap in tariff implementation, we must shift our focus to China. Both the U.S. and Canada are grappling with significant trade imbalances due to China’s dumping of government-subsidized tooling and other commodities. This unfair competition is costing us jobs and business opportunities.

Until the issue of Chinese dumping is addressed, imposing tariffs on each other will only hurt both countries while China continues to grow stronger. Working together to solve this problem is key to protecting jobs and sustaining growth on both sides of the border.