Northern US Mayors Call for End to ‘Irrational’ Trade War With Canada

Mayors in states that border Canada are calling for an end to President Donald Trump’s trade war with the country, saying it has harmed businesses and workers in their communities and upended one of the world’s most successful economic relationships.

Andrew Ginther, mayor of Columbus, Ohio, and Bryan Barnett, mayor of Rochester Hills, Michigan, said in an interview Friday that the countries should continue to build things together and trade with each other because the partnership has been working for decades.

“We don’t think that growth and prosperity for American cities comes through a prolonged, unstable, irrational and emotionally charged trade war,” said Ginther, a Democrat who is also president of the US Conference of Mayors. “Our metro economies are based on trade and being able to export what we produce in the United States.”

The two mayors were in Ottawa for a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the counterpart to Ginther’s group. The politicians said cooperation among Canadian, American and Mexican mayors has never been stronger and at a municipal level, leaders are broadly united against tariffs.

Canada and Mexico were among the first countries targeted by Trump — he imposed levies on goods that don’t comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as well as sectoral duties on steel, aluminum and automobiles, prompting Canada to retaliate with levies of its own.

Both mayors’ communities are hubs for auto manufacturing, which sees parts zip back and forth across the Canada-US border as vehicles are assembled. Barnett, a Republican, said the interconnected sector has been effective in driving growth for all involved.

“We have two of the strongest economies in the world because we work together,” he said.

“We’re a capitalistic society that has succeeded because innovative people find great ways to make important things. And they do that with partnerships, they do that with collaborations. I want to harness that. I don’t want to block it.”

There is value in the president’s overall goal of repatriating jobs to the US, the mayors said, and there are industries where a domestic supply chain is essential, such as computer chips. But the uncertainty caused by the chaotic tariff rollout is damaging businesses’ ability to make investment and hiring decisions, they said.

A recent survey of businesses in Rochester Hills found that nearly 60% have ruled out capital investment in 2025, with 30% planning to lay people off this year, Barnett said.

Given that the top issue in their communities — and the issue that helped elect the president — is the cost of living, the tariffs are a misguided policy, the mayors argued.

“The uncertainty is deadly,” Ginther said. “The cost of living’s probably tough enough when you have a job. When you lose that job, that’s when you have families spiral into a real desperate place.”

Photo: A tractor-trailer traveling into the United States at the Canada-US border in St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec.

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