Canadian steel firms face turmoil after US stab in the back [Video]

When Shale Tobe heard President Donald Trump planned to impose tariffs on Canadian steel, a product that has supported his family for decades, he was in New York on holiday, “spending money down in the US.”

“I’ll have second thoughts about that” now, he told AFP on the warehouse floor of North York Iron, a family-owned steel distribution business in Toronto started by his great-uncle more than 60 years ago.

Trump’s latest tariff order has sparked fresh anger among Canadians, including business owners like Tobe who deal with US counterparts on a near-daily basis.

“They’re like brothers to us,” he said of US steel firms.

“Things have been running smoothly, going back and forth across the borders for decades… We’re being stabbed in the back a bit, I feel.”

Trump’s pronouncements on US-Canada trade have veered in several directions.

He has promised a blanket 25 percent tariff on all Canadian …