A local financial advisor says there are political and economic signs that US President Donald Trump may not make good on his threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods.
Larry Short of Short Financial, a brand of iA Private Wealth says the US and Canadian economies are so fundamentally intertwined that any tariff on Canadian goods would have a devastating impact on the US as well.
“There’s nothing there” Short told Tim Powers on VOCM “except maybe softwood lumber that is very specific that you an put a tariff against, that does not have a dramatic impact on the US economy.” He says while tariffs would harm the Canadian economy “pretty severely” they would be equally damaging to the US economy.
Short says suggestions that tariffs are imminent have not yet started to ripple through the markets, which is usually a sign that something is coming.
Short says if Trump was going to put a tariff on Canadian goods, we would see certain stocks sell off on Canadian and US markets, “we’re not seeing that.”
Short warns however that it’s still important to be ready for the possibility that tariffs could be imposed.