Canada’s

counter-tariffs on American imports

have already cost households and businesses $1.5 billion, a figure that is forecasted to balloon to $9 billion by next April, or almost $550 per household, says a new report from the

Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).

“Tariffs, whether they are applied unilaterally or in retaliation, are taxes by another name and they squeeze families just the same,” Emmanuelle Faubert, an economist at MEI, said in a release. “They artificially drive up the cost of goods imported into Canada, and it’s Canadian families and businesses who end up footing the bill.”

In early March, Canada imposed 25 per cent counter tariffs on nearly $60-billion worth of goods from the United States. Those duties during April and May have cost Canadian households $91.50, MEI estimates.

The amount of money Ottawa collected in April and May from duties on imports swelled 179 per cent to $2.4 billion in 2025 from $842 million during the same period a year ago, according to Canada’s Department of Financial

Fiscal Monitor

.

MEI came up with the figure of $91.50 by taking the $1.51-billion difference between the tariffs collected in April and May this year and in the same period in 2024 and dividing it by the number of Canadian households (16,547,000).

The think tank assumes taxes get passed onto households in a number of ways.

“One of them is through higher prices. Other ways are through lower wage increases and less employment, whether it is job losses or loss of hours,” Renaud Brossard, an MEI spokesperson, said. “Tariffs are always being passed onto the individual one way or another.”

If the current trend continues, retaliatory tariffs could wind up costing households $548.97 by the end of the federal government’s fiscal year on March 31, 2026, MEI said.

The list of goods covered by the tariffs includes 1,814 items, from food to appliances to personal items such as clothing, footwear and toiletries.

To take some of the pressure off Canadian businesses, Ottawa passed regulations to waive tariffs on goods used to manufacture vehicles and aircraft. Companies can also get tariff relief if the goods they import are eventually exported. Businesses are also exempt if they operate in the health, public safety and national security sectors.

Brossard said those exemptions don’t apply to MEI’s calculations since they are based on money that has been collected by Ottawa.

With tariffs cutting such a wide swath through everyday items, Canadians said they are feeling it.

More than three-quarters of about 1,000 Canadian adults recently surveyed by Ipsos on behalf of MEI said tariffs on U.S. imports were increasing the cost of everyday goods.

  • Carney says U.S.-Canada trade negotiations at ‘intense phase’
  • Trump says trade deal with Canada unlikely before Aug. 1 deadline

U.S. President

Donald Trump

has set a deadline of Aug. 1 to nail down a trade deal with Canada, but has since indicated that might not happen. The U.S. struck an

agreement on Sunday with the European Union

that established a 15 per cent baseline tariff on European exports to the U.S.

Prime Minister Mark Carney recently indicated that a zero per cent tariff trade deal with the U.S. is unlikely.

• Email: gmvsuhanic@postmedia.com

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