Chris Mays
03-26-2025
President Trump's trade war is causing uncertainty for Vermont cannabis businesses.
Karen Devereux, co-owner of Kingdom Kind in Barton, said she isn't seeing effects on tourism just yet.
"But it could have an impact toward summertime since we do have a lot of Canadian visitors to our lakes," she said. "We can only hope it doesn’t have a negative impact on sales."
Tariffs will affect the Vermont cannabis industry, said Amy Lems, member of the Vermont Growers Association Board.
"The biggest impact of the tariff war is the uncertainty," she said. "It is impossible to forecast future sales with the on-again off-again implementation happening at the federal level. That chaos is all the more reason to plead with the Vermont Cannabis Control Board and legislators to do what they can at the state level to help stabilize the Vermont cannabis industry."
Anything coming from Canada will be affected by a tariff, Lems said, "so any equipment, raw materials, etc., used to produce cannabis products will be more expensive." She expects an energy tariff is likely to affect businesses, especially if they happen to be indoor growers.
Canadian cannabis is not directly affected by the emerging trade war with the U.S although "many aspects of the cannabis industry supply chain could be," an article on stratcann.com states, citing packaging and some equipment as examples.
"This can mean increased costs for producers, and those costs being passed on to consumers," the article states.
Trump "keeps changing his mind on tariffs," Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt, said via social media last week.
"But damage has already been done," Welch said. "Small businesses in Vermont and around the country are already losing money because of him."
Last week, business owners from both sides of the U.S.-Canada border gathered in Vermont to discuss how the Trump administration's sweeping tariffs have affected their industries.
"There's no place for this," said Welch, who hosted the meeting. "We are neighbors. We're allies. We're friends. And I want to keep it that way."
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (U.S. $2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. In Vermont, trade with Canada accounted for more than a third of the state's exports and two-thirds of its imports last year.
Welch said one in four of the state's businesses rely on trade with Canada, and they cannot afford to absorb a 25 percent hike on imports.
"Everybody knows, except apparently President Trump, that the people who pay the tariffs are the people who buy the products," Welch said in a recent Senate floor speech. "This is really, really stupid. This is going to hurt Vermont."
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