BELLINGHAM (NEWS 1130) – Trade war-related threats by Canadians wanting to boycott the United States don’t seem to be hurting retailers in Washington state — yet.
That’s according to the head of the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce.
Guy Occhiogrosso says new trade tariffs haven’t been in effect long enough to have much of an impact, but he admits he is worried about Canadians no longer venturing deep into Bellingham.
“The unfortunate piece for me is, I think, those Canadians who may come down to want to experience downtown Bellingham or Fairhaven, those are the ones that might be impacted based upon the decision from an emotional response or an ideological response. Those businesses typically don’t rely on the cross-border traffic at all.”
He says his main concern is the wide-ranging implication of this trade war on Bellingham’s economy.
“I would expect a certain level of impact because of the current legislation and the current administration for sure. Any impact is unfortunate.”
Occhiogrosso adds people threatening to boycott businesses in Washington need to consider how many are owned by Canadians.
“They may have Canadian residents that are employees, US employees. Those are the ones that we’re paying attention to. That’s getting into livelihoods that could drastically change.”
He predicts it will take three or four months to figure out if Canadians used to buying cheap gas and dairy products in Washington are willing to stop.
“It’s really too early to tell because you can’t track week versus week. You need a little bit more space just because of the way holidays fall and weather –just to kind of have enough of a consensus, to say, comparing July 5th this year versus July 5th last year. We’re a regional shopping destination and so, we pull from the southbound traffic as well as the northbound traffic. The Canadian dollar and the proximity to that shopping base, you know, it’s an added benefit.”
Occhiogrosso also says he’s still seeing plenty of cars with BC license plates in Washington.
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