As trade war tightens, more Langley shoppers go local

As the U.S.-Canada trade war drives up the cost of shopping trips south of the line and sends consumers in search of Canadian-made companies and products, some Langley businesses are seeing a rise in sales, said Chamber of commerce CEO Cory Redekop.

“There’s places that have been locally owned and and very proud of that for a long, long time,” Redekop told the Langley Advance Times. “And I’m pleased to see people paying attention to it now.”

“I think we’re seeing more of our members kind of leaning into that and identifying, ‘hey, we’re Canadian owned’,” Redekop commented.

“Everyone’s just attuned to shopping local and being aware of where their dollars are [going]. We need to be supporting our local companies.”

After the U.S. imposed tariffs, the federal government put 25 per cent tariffs on 1,200 U.S. products popular with cross-border shoppers on March 4.

Since then, social media has been full of posts from travellers who report Canada Border Services officers have been issuing warnings about the tariffs to same-day shoppers without immediately charging them.