As President Donald Trump continues to use tariffs to negotiate, the relationship between the U.S. and Canada is growing more tense. And farmers fear if they’re caught in the middle of another trade war, it will impact not only the commodities they sell, but the inputs they rely on each year.
“As you’re heading into this planting season, what are you most concerned about?” I asked Maurine Chauvin, a farmer who goes by ‘Moe” in Essex County, Ontario.
“Tariffs, I think, are the No. 1 issue between our nations, and you know, all we want is to get back to our friendly trading that we’ve always had as neighbors,” he said.
Chauvin farms in a province of Canada situated in the southwestern corner of Ontario. It’s basically just on the Canadian side of Detroit, which means much he relies heavily on what comes from the U.S.
His current focus should be on planting and nurturing his wheat that’s sprouted in the field, but instead, he’s concerned about trade. As for the wheat, it’s benefited from a steady dose of winter weather this year.
“It looks pretty good; there was some low spots. You’re wondering how it’s going to turn out when it sits under water and ice for so long, but as farmers, I think we always have to be hopeful come spring,” Chauvin said.
That’s what farmers do. They remain hopeful, even when the reality of farming through another trade war seems bleak.
“As a farmer, are you concerned about the current dynamic,” I asked Chauvin.
“Absolutely. How can you not be? It’s very concerning,” Chauvin said. “As Ontario farmers, we rely on a lot of inputs and important pieces to put our crop in the ground, and you know, from the seed, fertilizer, chemicals, farm equipment — it can all be affected.”
It’s not just the tariffs possibly placed on the crops he grows this year, as retaliatory tariffs could also cause the cost of inputs he relies on from the U.S. to rise.
“In my eyes, nobody wins,” he said. “I think all we’d like to see is to have free trade come back and have some good long trade between our nations like we’ve always had.”
The concern is being echoed by farmers all across Canada.
“It’s the unknown and getting my crop on my own farm in in a timely manner without any surprises as far as added costs. Margins are slim, commodity prices are low, so there’s no room for error,” said Jeff Harrison, who’s a farmer and the current chair of the Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO).
Harrison thinks this trade war could be more devastating than the last.
“There is more on the table. Costs have gone up tremendous post-Covid. We all see what’s happened in our own lives with inflation, everything costs more. So, there’s more on the table for a farmer, more on the line, more risk,” Harrison said.
That risk is something GFO is stressing to Canadian policymakers.
“If we look at trade war between Canada and the U.S., what we’re coming from is decades of one of the best trading relationships anywhere in the world,” said Crosby Devitt, CEO of GFO. “And so when we look at it, it’s quite alarming to us that we’re even in the situation, first of all, but certainly I think the risk is that we could erode decades of great relationships.”
As CEO of GFO, Devitt leads an organization that represents 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers across Ontario. He says for Ontario farmers, it’s the unknown causing so much angst.
“Certainly, when we look at what we bring into Canada from the U.S. in terms of our farming supplies — a lot of our inputs, like fertilizers, phosphorus and nitrogen, for example — there’s a lot of uncertainty there,” he said. “Seed definitely flows both ways, but one of the big areas of concern that I hear from farmers is machinery and machinery parts. So there’s certainly a lot of machinery production in the U.S. that we rely on [for] buying that equipment into Canada, but also parts. And so there’s a lot of uncertainty around where the supply chain might go and how that’s going to be affected.”
Secretary Rollins Defends Trump’s Use of Tariffs
During a recent interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended the president’s use of tariffs, saying he’s holding Canada accountable.
“This president’s vision of tariffs [is] such an important part of his toolkit as he begins to realign the economy to put America first, to put our men and women, our families first. Everybody knows, and when they voted in November of 2024, they knew that’s what they were voting for. And so as we see the president begin to rollout, as we see him hold accountable Canada with their 250% tariffs on our dairy products, as they see him hold accountable, Mexico, China, all these countries where we have a 5% on our end when our products go out. They’ve got 15%, so three times, this is on average, on their end when their products come in. It’s not fair. And it’s got to be equalized as we move toward more free trade,” said Rollins.
Rollins pointed out the president has been very clear that there will be an interim period where the economy readjusts.
“Real transformation takes these harder decisions, and no one’s willing to do that, except now President Trump is,” Rollins said during the interview. “So, obviously 100 % behind it. I am talking to farmers every single day. They know that the president has their back. They know and are prepared for potentially, you know, an interim period as we move toward what the president has said is the greatest age of prosperity not just for all Americans, But for our farmers in our ranchers as well.”
No Compensation for Canadian Farmers
One major difference between the U.S. and Canada is that during the last trade war, U.S. farmers received Market Facilitation Program payments, or MFP. Those were designed to help compensate farmers for the market losses they suffered. In Canada, commodity prices were hit just as hard, but there were no payments to farmers.
“We have a very different system in Canada in terms of farm support or our business risk management programs we call them,” said Devitt. “We do have, you know, a crop insurance program for example that’s really just a yield-based insurance program. That’s the main one, but there are other programs, but nothing that would be specifically designed to handle a system disruption like this in our marketplace.”
Farmers Are On the Front lines
It’s farmers who were on the front lines of the last trade war, and GFO is concerned farmers will get hit hard again.
“We don’t know how to win a trade war, but we do know that Ontario and Canadian farmers will pay the price for that trade war, along with our United States counterparts,” said Miller. “But we need our government to know that retaliatory tariffs will hurt our own farmers. Good decisions need to be made.”
Farmers like Chauvin hear all the noise but are trying to focus on controlling what they can — and that’s planting and harvesting this year’s crop. But out of the three crops Chauvin grows — corn, soybeans and wheat — he doesn’t know which crop will be caught in the middle of a trade war this time around.
“Nobody really knows. I’ve been asking that question, and all crops are concerning, because Ontario farming is a $6 billion export business to the U.S. Those are big numbers, and it’s concerning,” Chauvin said.
But this Canadian farmer says, in his mind, one things for certain: No one wins in a trade war.
“I mean our concerns are the same and we all live to put the crop in the ground, and farming runs in your blood, and it doesn’t matter if you’re American or Canadian, we all want to put the crop in the ground and feed the world,” Chauvin said.
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