10 ILLINOIS BUSINESS LEADER 10 ILLINOIS BUSINESS LEADER CONNECTING Canada is proud to be the Prairie State’s #1 customer and trading partner, with an annual two-way trade relationship worth more than $83 billion. And we’re grateful for the partnerships between Illinois and Canadian businesses that have helped grow that trade roughly 40% since 2021. But now this historic prosperity is at risk, for businesses and com munities throughout Illinois. Since March 3, the U.S. Administration has threatened and imposed an escalating series of tariffs against Canada: 25% on Canadian goods, an additional 25% on foreign steel and aluminum, and 10% on Canadian energy. Uncertainty continues to surround these tariffs and their im plementation – and we know that the last thing businesses want is uncer tainty. Canada-Illinois trade covers ev erything from energy to agriculture, medicines & healthcare products, to motor vehicles and chemicals. But many of the goods we sell the U.S. are intermediate products that feed Mid west manufacturing, which is why Canada is the only one of America’s top five trading partners with which the U.S. has a manufacturing trade surplus. In fact, excluding energy, the U.S. actually enjoys an overall trade surplus with Canada as well. And even our energy exchange represents free trade at its best. Can ada supplies the heavy crude oil that the U.S. can’t easily produce domes tically or would have to import from less stable overseas markets. The U.S. then sells Canada and other coun tries the finished fuel that we lack the capacity to refine ourselves. Nowhere is this crucial energy partnership more evident than here in Illinois, where Canadian crude supplies the bulk of the feedstock for the state’s four refineries. Electricity is cheaper in Canada, particularly due to our hydroelectric resources. That makes electricity-in tensive manufacturing like steel and aluminum cheaper, too. We all want to restore North American industrial competitiveness, but we’ll never get there through artificially increasing costs for our factories by blocking that supply. That’s why tariffs simply aren’t the answer. They are unwarranted and unjustified and undermine the fair trade rules that Canada negotiat ed in good faith with the Administra tion just five years ago. The Adminis tration cites “illicit drugs” and “illegal migration” to justify the national security “threat” now posed by its closest ally, but the facts are clear. Less than 0.2% of all fentanyl seized by U.S. border authorities is found at the northern border. Far more, in fact, is seized by Canadian border authorities being trafficked from the U.S. into Canada. And while less than 1% of illegal migrants enter the U.S. through the northern border, we have still pledged a new $1 billion border security investment to build on our 89% reduction in such crossings from peak 2024 levels. We will always keep working to protect our shared border, but tariffs Canadian Trade Partnership The views expressed in this publication represent those of the authors and do not reflect the official position nor do they serve as an endorsement of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.
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