The Board of Trade warns that increasing costs resulting from the trade war between the U.S. and Canada will have to be downloaded onto consumers.

The U.S. has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods bound for the U.S. with Prime Minister Mark Carney countering with similar tariffs on many U.S. goods coming into Canada starting on September 8.

That, says the Board of Trade’s AnnMarie Boudreau, will result in even higher costs to business.

“Small and medium-sized businesses in particular, can’t absorb any more cost increases,” says Boudreau. She says those businesses have been living through a “very volatile and unpredictable climate” for some time and there have already been increased costs to businesses “over and over.”

She says businesses don’t want to pass those costs on, but they have to. “That’s just going to be a reality in the foreseeable future.”