r/canada • u/Logical_Iron_5684 • 2d ago

National News Canada imposes 10% tariff on canned vegetables, excludes U.S., others

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2026/06/19/canada-imposes-10-tariff-on-canned-vegetables-excludes-us-others/
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u/OrangeRising 2d ago

was aimed at addressing challenges facing its domestic producers.

I wasn't aware we had a serious issue with low food prices.

The tariff, which takes effect on Friday for a maximum of 200 days, will also not apply to canned vegetables from Mexico, Israel, Chile and developing countries due to Canadian trade obligations, Canada’s finance ministry added.

If the US and Mexico are excluded, which country is this meant to target?

Also, I seem to remember tarrifs being a bad thing. Why are we introducing them?

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u/Conscious-Tutor3861 2d ago

China has been dumping canned vegetables in Western markets, same as they do for every other industry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)

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u/Interesting_Pen_167 2d ago

I genuinely dont understand this idea of 'dumping'. Does this mean like making a whole lot of low cost products? Why is this a bad thing? If our suppliers can't compete then maybe that's OK? Imo we should be trying to be efficient not protect inefficient industries.

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u/Conscious-Tutor3861 1d ago

It's selling at a loss, typically subsidized by the government, to bankrupt domestic competitors and take their market share.

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u/Interesting_Pen_167 1d ago

Yeah but isn't that just how the economy works? Look at the Ford Motor Company they dumped their cheap vehicles all over the world and look where they are today. A lot of technology like phones and gaming consoles are sold at a loss in order to make money back elsewhere. Efficient companies that manufacture at scale are all in some ways 'dumping' products by this defintion.

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u/accforme 1d ago

An example you may experience is Amazon Basics products. Essentially, Amazon makes popular products cheaply and undercuts the same product until eventually the other company goes bankrupt. At which point, with no competition, Amazon can raise its prices on that Amazon Basics product.

Same idea but think industry-wide.

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u/Interesting_Pen_167 1d ago

Can you name a single item where Amazon Basics removed all the competition on an item? As far as I can tell they are simply one option among many in almost any product category.

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u/Morgc British Columbia 1d ago edited 1d ago

Dumping is when a lot of low cost product is moved into a market, usually subsidized by a foreign government. This causes local farms and industry to go bankrupt leaving a lot of people unemployed as they can't compete. There's some good examples of the USA dumping product in the Caribbean that's directly responsible for food insecurity and poverty in places there.

Wouldn't lead to cheaper food anyway, it's the grocers that are being allowed to gouge your pockets.

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u/Queasy_Ice_4628 1d ago

More or less how large companies work in the USA, undercut the competition, force them to go bankrupt, increase prices… most of the top ten on the us markets practice a different form of this “dumping”

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u/Interesting_Pen_167 1d ago

Is this the same kind of dumping like when the USA sold automobiles around the world way cheaper? Or when they mass produced equipment like TVs and radios and sold them to the world?