Hundreds of orders for U.S. boats have been cancelled by Canadian boat dealers as tariffs introduced by that country are scheduled go into effect on July 1. The tariffs were announced by the Canadian government following the Trump administration’s decision earlier this year to levy tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from Canada.
This story by Michael Verdon and Reagan Haynes originally appeared in Trade Only Today.
Dealers in Ontario have already cancelled 500 orders from the U.S. builders they represent.
About 100,000 new and used boats were sold in Ontario last year, according to NMMA Canada and about 65 percent of those boats came from the U.S.
U.S. builders started to feel the impact of the tariffs months ahead of the July 1 date.
“This is the first summer the Canadians have started selling boats again,” said Rob Parmentier, CEO of the Marquis-Larson Group, adding the market has been hampered since 2016 by currency fluctuations. Parmentier, whose company sells many boats into Canada, said he is scrambling to come up with a plan to mitigate the impact of the tariffs so his Canadian dealers don’t “cancel millions of dollars of sales.”