Maritime business prepare for U.S. tariffs [Video]

The MV Ceci arrived in Halifax port after first picking up a load of soybeans in Quebec. It took three days to fill the ship with product grown in the Maritimes.

The cargo is will soon be heading to Europe.

With a potential 25 per cent tariff looming when Donald Trump takes office, Kim Batherson, general manager of Halifax Grain Elevator Ltd., is grateful none of their products goes to the U.S.

“I think there’s a lot of uncertainty right now with what’s going on with our neighbours to the south so I don’t think that for us here it’s not going to affect us,” Batherson says.

That’s not the case in other sectors.

“In 2023, $1.63 billion worth of lobster was shipped to the U.S. from Canada,” says Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada.

Irvine is part of a group representing seafood, grain and meats that just sat down with Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay to talk tariffs that, if imposed, could Affect …