Indigenous businesses face disproportionate vulnerabilities amid the Canada-U.S. trade war due to systemic barriers like capital access and infrastructure gaps, raising concerns that tariffs and rising costs could stall their growing integration into domestic and international supply chains.
NORTHERN ONTARIO鈥擣or Indigenous businesses, the threat posed by the Canada-U.S. trade war does not begin nor end at the border. For many, it begins right here at home in the long struggle to get a foot inside the supply chains that keep Canadian businesses moving.
As Canada and the United States continue their increasingly uncertain tariff dispute, Indigenous business owners are being warned that they could be disproportionately affected by both American tariffs and Canada鈥檚 response. But the concern reaches beyond the cost of imported goods.
It is about what happens to businesses that have already had to work harder to secure capital, qualified workers, infrastructure and access to markets and, increasingly, to become recognized as viable suppliers to larger corporations and governments.
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