‘Incredibly integrated systems’: U.S. tariffs could mean job losses in food and beverage sector

Mike Mikulak with Food and Beverage Manitoba discusses how U.S. tariffs would impact the province’s food and beverage sector.

Manitoba’s food and beverage sector could experience some devastating impacts, including job losses, if U.S. President Donald Trump goes through with his threats to impose steep tariffs.

Mike Mikulak, executive director of Food and Beverage Manitoba, said the country’s food and beverage sector is “incredibly” connected to the United States.

He explained this is because Canada exports billions of dollars of food every year, adding that these goods move back and forth across the border multiple times.

“Things like cans. We don’t produce cans here, we produce aluminum,” he said.

“So a lot of things are moving across the border back and forth and we rely on the Americans and they rely on us for all of that. These are incredibly integrated systems.”

Mikulak said the global food system has been impacted by war, climate change and supply chain disruptions over the last few years.

He noted if the tariffs move forward, this “delicate” system is going to feel the weight of the trade war, including through the reduction of jobs.

“A lot of these companies know they can’t pass on the full cost to the consumers and that means reducing jobs,” he said.

Mikulak said he commends Manitobans for supporting local, adding that many of his organization’s members said they’ve been seeing great success over the last few months.

He said the issue is that some sectors produce too many goods for Manitoba alone, which is why interprovincial trade will be important.

“It’s very difficult to ship across barriers, whether it’s liquor laws, whether it’s food safety standards, it’s really hard to move across those barriers,” he said.

“So if we can use this as an opportunity to reduce that, it would be incredible. But the reality is we will never eat all the food that we produce. We are an exporting nation.”

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé