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MONTREAL — When the Trump administration took aim at free trade last year, Ryan Zoehner felt like he was under fire.
“Our supply chain got caught in the crosshairs,” said the CEO of Algo, a Vancouver-area manufacturer whose 165 employees make speakers, strobe lights and intercoms for use in schools, hospitals and airports.
The maze of tariff walls thrown up by U.S. President Donald Trump as well as Canada’s retaliatory duties meant Zoehner had to reroute the flow of 5,000 parts used in Algo products, many of which ultimately land on American loading docks.
More than the cost of the tariffs, it was the turbulence stirred up by a barrage of trade threats and shifting rules that menaced his bottom line.
“Volatility is the main word,” he said.
Zoehner hopes the opposite will emerge from trade talks.
“The No. 1 thing as a business leader I’m looking for is consistency and clarity,” he said. Closer integration is the ideal, hammered out quickly if possible, longer if necessary.
Zoehner isn’t alone as he straddles a divide over how to handle discussions with America’s famously fickle head of state.
Canada’s business community says a deal that lets most goods flow to the United States tariff-free is the top goal as negotiators gear up for trade talks. But corporate leaders disagree on how best to reach that outcome, diverging on whether a quick-and-dirty deal or a wait-and-see approach offers the best path.
The former brings stability for companies sooner but possibly at the cost of more concessions, while the latter sees Trump’s sagging poll numbers ahead of the U.S. midterm elections as leverage for Canadian negotiators, but prolongs the pain at home, the arguments go.
The heads of groups representing manufacturers, steelmakers and CEOs fall on one side of the debate, saying the cloud of uncertainty has stifled capital investment, hurt bottom lines and upped the urgency to lock in an agreement.
On the other side, many small business owners and tech firms believe that the more time passes, the more pressure builds on Trump.
Just this week, the Trump administration proposed a 10 per cent additional tariff on Canada and other countries, though the vast majority of goods exported to the U.S. are compliant with the existing trade pact and exempt from levies.
“We’re desperately in search of certainty, in search of predictability, both of which would inspire confidence to deploy capital,” said Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada.
“Stretching this out is going to be harmful for all of us.”
Many companies have gone into survival mode, he said, resulting in sluggish economic growth across the continent over the past year, especially in Mexico and Canada.
Some tariffs should be expected, Hyder said, echoing other business leaders. But they say those levies must be lower than the rates for other countries and the vast majority of trade must be exempt under the agreement.
“You’ve got to pay to play now,” he said. “Tariffs in some shape or form are going to be there.”
Others warned against hurrying to shake hands with the dealmaker-in-chief.
“Rushing to a deal may not be a helpful outcome,” said Dan Kelly, who heads the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“I don’t love the idea of us going into this kind of year-to-year renegotiation.”
A refusal by any of the three states to renew the trade deal for a 16-year extension would trigger that process of annual reviews — and potential revisions.
“But at the moment, that may be less problematic than a bad deal that we sign right away or a deal that then is not respected three weeks later,” Kelly said, noting Trump’s history of reneging on trade agreements — including the current deal that he signed himself.
The review deadline for the pact is July 1. By then, the countries will have to decide whether to renew it or renegotiate it. Most observers think the latter is a near-certainty. And the longer the limbo lasts, the more pain it inflicts.
Capital investment by manufacturers is down by a quarter this year, said Dennis Darby, CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters industry group.
“A bad deal is not a deal you want. But to be fair, the uncertainty is what is really hurting Canada’s economy,” he said.
Tariffs on the auto, steel, aluminum and lumber sectors have taken a heavy toll, costing thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.
Steel production has fallen 60 per cent, said Catherine Cobden, who heads the Canadian Steel Producers Association.
“That’s millions of tonnes,” she said, noting that more than half of Canada’s output used to be U.S.-bound.
“It’s a very dire, desperate situation.”
For Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO Candace Laing, relief from punishing sectoral tariffs comes second only to renewal of the trade deal, or something closely resembling it.
“Yes, there is urgency,” she said. “We want to see a good deal, and that is more than a quick deal.
“Taking our time to get a good deal is not the same as wait-and-see and ragging the puck,” she qualified. “That’s not what we want and that’s not what Canada is doing.”
On Tuesday, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc sat down with his American counterpart in Washington, a day after sending a letter to the U.S. and Mexico recommending the three countries renew the trade agreement.
To seal a deal, some leaders acknowledged that easing some of the trade irritants listed by the U.S. was essential.
Chief among those are the ban on American liquor in government-run stores in most provinces and restrictions on market access for U.S. producers of dairy, poultry, eggs and cheese.
“There may be some wiggle room there, to be honest,” John Corey, president of the Freight Management Association of Canada, said of Canada’s dairy supply management system.
Other concessions may also be in the cards.
On Wednesday, Ottawa directed the country’s communications regulator to back down on its recent decision to triple streamers’ financial contributions to Canadian content in what some see as a submission to asks from American streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
“What I worry about any time that there’s a concession is that it’s to preserve a status quo instead of regain some leverage,” said Patrick Searle, CEO of the Council of Canadian Innovators.
A recent U.S. demand for 50 per cent American content in all North American-made autos marks a “really high bar,” said Fraser Johnson, professor of operations management at Western University’s Ivey Business School.
“But can Canadian suppliers adapt to that? The answer is probably yes.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2026.
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
