Alaska businesses, already struggling under the weight of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global trade war, now face a fresh wave of uncertainty as Washington and Ottawa trade blows with tariffs as high as 50% on goods crossing their shared border.
The stakes are particularly high for Alaska, which imports more than $1 billion in Canadian goods annually and exports more than $600 million northward in return — making Canada one of the state’s most critical trading partners. Greg Wolf, head of the Alaska International Business Center, described the relationship as “one of mutual benefit,” and said it was “difficult to watch this trade war unfold” given the 1,500 miles of border the two sides share and the deep economic ties that have developed along it.
This summer, the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, targeting alcoholic beverages, building materials and dairy products, among others. Those levies stack on top of a 10% base rate already applied to Canada and other countries — itself a reduction from the 28% average peak reached last year, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the emergency powers law the president had previously invoked to justify his trade actions was unconstitutional. Trump has repeatedly claimed that foreign nations pay the tariffs, but Wolf was blunt in correcting that framing. “It’s basically a national sales tax on the American people,” he said. The tariffs are widely considered a contributing factor to the current U.S. personal consumption index sitting at 3.7%, nearly double the Federal Reserve’s 2% long-term target.
Don Bruno, who owns Play It Again Sports locations in Spenard and Wasilla, said the 50% rate is “absolutely crazy” and not something he can simply transfer to his customers. Every dollar he planned to spend on a Canadian product now effectively costs $1.50, a margin that has already forced him to abandon a long-standing supplier of hockey pucks in favour of manufacturers in other countries. “Prices are going up, and I eat them when I can, but there’s times that you have to raise prices,” he said, noting that tariff pressures have been building across his inventory — from hockey jerseys to general sporting goods — for the past year and a half.
Wolf flagged construction materials as a sector to watch closely in Alaska, since a large share of the lumber and building supplies used across the state flows directly from Canada. A sustained escalation in those costs could ripple through the housing and commercial construction sectors at a time when Alaska communities are already dealing with elevated costs of living.
Canada has not absorbed the pressure quietly. Ottawa announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on a broad list of American products, including dairy and steel and aluminum manufactured goods, with those measures set to take effect September 8. Wolf noted that Canadian counter-tariffs could hurt Alaska exporters by making their products more expensive relative to competitors from other countries, compounding the damage on both sides of the ledger.
Sean McLaughlin, chief executive of Alaska Gear Co. — which manufactures airplane gear and cold-weather bunny boots and counts Canada as a key market — said the constant shifts in tariff policy have made strategic planning nearly impossible. He described the tariffs as a “moving target” that generate uncertainty “for no reason,” adding that the entire situation is “a waste of time and energy.” His message to Canadian customers was characteristically direct: “Don’t blame us. We like you.”
Janet Gregory, who owns Over the Rainbow Toys in South Anchorage, said she has largely stopped trying to map out the specific impacts, given how many variables remain unresolved — including whether Trump’s latest round of tariffs will survive legal scrutiny. She absorbs what cost increases she can and raises prices selectively when she believes her customers can bear it. “I just figure it’s going to be what it’s going to be, and there’s not much I can do about it,” she said. Whether the administration’s tariff strategy ultimately produces a net economic benefit, Wolf acknowledged, remains an open question. “This is all uncharted territory,” he said.
