US-canada border cities hit by Trump’s trade war

At the end of a waitress shift, Kristina Lampert used her tips in two posts: Canadian money and American.

But it was weeks since she did that.

Freighters, the restaurant where she works, is one of the first places where people can take a bite after crossing the border between the US and Canada between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan.

The Blue Water Bridge, which connects the US and Canada, is fully visible from the windows of the restaurant.

“Many people used to come by and said,” We are here for the view, “she says about Canadian dinners. “I haven’t heard that at all lately.”

Border Towns noticed almost immediately when US President Donald Trump began to impose the rates on countries around the world and to say that he wanted to make Canada the 51st American state – because the number of Canadians that crossed the border plumbled.

Border transitions between the US and Canada have fallen around 17% since Trump started in bringing in rates, according to CBP data.

According to Statistics Canada, the car journeys from the Canadians to the US have fallen nearly 32% compared to March 2024, according to Statistics Canada.

Like many of the cities that close along the 5,525 miles (8,891 km), the economies of Port Huron and Sarnia are connected and in some respects dependent on each other. Port Huron is a production city of fewer than 30,000 people with a picturesque city center and many shops and offers visitors a tempting opportunity for a day trip.

On a day on which there is little traffic, a resident of Sarnia can cross the border and be in Michigan within a few minutes.

Many of these cities were confronted with their first test more than five years ago, when the COVID-19 Pandemie closed the intersections for 19 months and left the local economies.

Now they see a second economic hit because of Trump’s trade war, where many Canadians choose to “buy Canadian” – buy Canadian goods – and reduce the trip to the US in response to the fraying relationship between the two neighboring countries.

One place that is felt this is on Sarnia’s Duty Free, the last place where you can buy goods before you leave Canada and enter the US. The boards of perfume and liquid are fuller and the parking lot has started since the rates.

Barbara Barett, the executive director of Frontier Duty Free Association, says that some of the 32 Land-Border Service in Canada has seen a decrease in the sale of 80% since the return of Trump to the White House. Most stores see a decrease in things with 50-60%.

“We are 100% dependent on the journey across the border,” she says about employment. “Our stores are often pillars of these communities; communities depend on them.”

And while the intersection in Port Huron-Sarnia is doing better than most, the parking lot of the Sarnia Duty Free is almost empty on a Friday in May.

Tania Lee, who runs the store with her family, says that it has become the new norm.

On the Easter weekend – usually one of their busiest of the year, because Canadians benefit from the break to stop in a favorite restaurant and go to a church service in Port Huron – cars were little in between and the sale was not what they should have been, she says.

“We suffer because of collateral damage on the border,” says Lee about her second generation of family business.

Mrs Lee notes that people who live in border cities often cross the border several times a week. For example, she has a mailbox in a shipping facility in Port Huron that she regularly visits, just like her neighbors.

People about the Blue Water Bridge also feel the effects, says Mayor Anita Ashford.

She has heard from both inhabitants of her city and Canadians frustrated about the increased tension between the nations.

Nationally, a decrease of 10% in Canadian tourism would cost the US to 14,000 jobs and $ 2.1 billion (£ 1.56 billion) in the business world, according to the US Travel Association.

Michigan is one of the places that will probably see the victim of that impact. In 2023, according to the tourist officers, visitors to the Canadians issued a collective $ 238 million in the state.

That money is essential for border cities such as Port Huron, says the mayor.

“I hope that people in Washington will start understanding what they do to people,” she says. “We are not responsible for this, the (federal) government has placed us in this position and now we have to deal with it respectfully.”

“We need each other,” she says.