A P.E.I. trailer maker turns to Canadian buyers after US tariffs hit its sales

Tariff costs absorbed, nearly

1 million $

Trout River Industries, in Coleman, Prince Edward Island, has absorbed nearly $1 million in tariff costs, and its sales have fallen on both sides of the border. The company employs 106 people.

The US once made up 40 per cent of its sales, and each trailer sold there now faces a 25 per cent tariff, half of it paid by the company. It now targets woodchip and fuel firms in Western Canada and mines in northern Ontario.

And us?

Federal grant to the company, nearly

988,000 $

Ottawa gave the company a grant of nearly $988,000 through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, for a new inventory building. It is one of 17 Island businesses and organizations sharing more than $6.9 million to respond to US tariffs.

"We can't count on the United States going forward, exclusively. And some companies did that for a number of years."

— Ron Marcolin, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters