Tariffs and a drop in cross-border traffic from B.C. are hurting small Washington State businesses near the border the most, according to a new survey by the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Border Policy Research Institute (BPRI) at Western Washington University.
Released July 16, "Cross-Border Vulnerabilities in Cascadia: Regional and Business Impacts of Trade and Tariff Policies" by BPRI Research Manager Jennifer Bettis, is based on the response of 58 Whatcom County businesses between May and June.
Whatcom County is located in the northwest corner of the U.S. state, bordering Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts.
Most of the business had 10 or fewer employees.
More than half, 59 per cent, said they relied on Canadian customers and 50 per cent said that the drop in Canadians crossing the border was causing damage to their businesses
“Canadians make up 25-30 per cent of our total customer base. We are missing at least half of those customers," one unidentified respondent told the survey.
Canadian travellers have cancelled most reservations, another said, while yet another business estimated revenue from Canadian travellers was down 70 per cent.
Businesses "involved in education and those that consider themselves to be cross-border businesses" are suffering losses.
"We’ve had regular students both be denied entry and also choose to return to Canada," one said.
Another told the survey "some Canadians are literally afraid to cross into the US for fear of imprisonment and deportation.”
And another said "most of my customers avoid crossing the border because they fear being sent for secondary inspection and possibly refused entry. Another major reason is the high tariffs imposed on both sides.”
Many small businesses reported being ‘somewhat’ or ‘definitely’ impacted by US tariffs and Canadian counter-tariffs, while many large businesses often reported little to no impact.
One of the smaller businesses warned “without financial assistance or tariff exemption, small businesses in the area such as ours will be closing."
Not everyone was a critic.
One business called the tariffs "great and [I] hope they continue. We need domestic manufacturing for national security.”
The latest U.S. border traffic figures show the number of trips into the U.S. from the Aldergrove, Abbotsford, Peace Arch and Pacific Highway crossings fell for a fifth straight month in June, down 43 per cent from a year ago.
According to the Bettis report, in 2024, Washington imported twice as much from Canada as it exported.
It exported $7.9 billion to Canada, while importing $17.8 billion. Washington’s biggest export was electricity, $587 million, while its biggest import was crude oil, at $6 billion (all figures in U.S. dollars).
