Trumps tariffs could pose problems for Canadas hardware, chip makers – National [Video]

Ramee Mossa was months into fundraising for his power hardware company FTEX when U.S. President Donald Trump started looming over the negotiations.

As soon as Trump took office, potential financiers in the U.S. began feeling “uneasy” and started asking questions about what a succession of tariffs would mean for Mossa’s Montreal-based company.

“For hardware startups, it’s going to make it more difficult for us to raise (money) and it’s going to make it more difficult for companies that make hardware to survive,” Mossa said.

He imagines the tariffs will be more of a “minor inconvenience” than a catastrophe for FTEX because it makes its systems that power e-bikes, e-scooters and other micro-mobility vehicles in Malaysia with components from Taiwan.

Its clients are mostly Canadian, American and European brands manufacturing their products in China or Vietnam, which allows FTEX to circumvent the forthcoming 25 per cent duty on Canadian goods and the U.S.’s present 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods.

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