MONTREAL — A group of duty-free shop owners says sales are plummeting as Canadian travellers steer clear of the U.S. amid anger over tariffs and annexation threats from President Donald Trump.
MONTREAL — A group of duty-free shop owners says sales are plummeting as Canadian travellers steer clear of the U.S. amid anger over tariffs and annexation threats from President Donald Trump.
MONTREAL — A group of duty-free shop owners says sales are plummeting as Canadian travellers steer clear of the U.S. amid anger over tariffs and annexation threats from President Donald Trump.
Revenue has dropped between 40 and 50 per cent across the country since late January, with some remote crossings reporting declines of up to 80 per cent, according to the Frontier Duty Free Association.
“As soon as the 51st-state rhetoric started happening and the tariff threats and Canadians united to not travel to the United States, which we understand, there was a dramatic — almost falling off the cliff — decline in traffic going over the border,” said executive director Barbara Barrett, whose association represents 32 stores.
“It’s very grim.”
The mom-and-pop shops, which sell products tax-free ranging from maple cookies to Canadian Club whiskey, were just starting to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic when the trade war struck, Barrett said.
While duty-free stores at land crossings number fewer than three dozen, she said they can be cornerstones of the local economy in rural areas.
The industry group, whose tightly regulated members do not have the option to pivot to delivery or online sales, is calling on the federal government to offer support in the form of grants or loans to ride out the disruption.
“We are 100 per cent dependent on that travel over the border,” Barrett stressed. “You have to be travelling over to the United States to enter into our stores.”
The number of Canadians returning by car from the U.S. fell nearly 32 per cent last month compared to March 2024, the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines and the steepest plunge since the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.
At some crossings, Americans going back home make up the bulk of the buyers. But car visits by U.S. residents dropped 11 per cent last month versus a year earlier, the second straight month of year-over-year declines.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2025.
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press