Threatened 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods entering the United States is dominating discussion among politicians and business leaders on this side of the border, but a local financial advisor says it remains to be seen whether incoming president Donald Trump will make good on those threats.

Larry Short of Short Financial, a branch of IA Private Wealth, says the tariffs will have a significant impact, not just on Canadians but on Americans as well.

He says tariffs are typically imposed if an industry is being impaired by cheaper imports unfairly coming in, to better allow the industry to grow and succeed.

In the case of Canada-US trade, most of the goods shipped to Canada are things the US market can’t readily get itself – including iron-ore.

“The US have a good number of steel mills, but the reason why they’re buying iron-ore from Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, is because there is not a deposit of that type, that quantity and supply set up in a way that they can easily get their hands on,” says Short. “It’ll take 12 years in order to get a mine put in place; that’s under the best of circumstances, and these days it’s not unusual for 18 years, so where are you going to get your iron-ore?”

The same is true of other commodities, like oil, says Short.

“In a similar way, Canada ships 4 million barrels of oil per day to the United States, which they need in order to process their own oil. So where do you get that? And in the same way, how are you going to replace all the electricity that is coming from Quebec into New York City for example?”