U.S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with Canada appears to have claimed another victim.
A small-town business at the border is shutting down after 24 years.
Point To Point Parcel, located in Point Roberts, Wash., served customers on both sides of the border, but co-owner Beth Calder says they can no longer sustain the business.
“It’s been really sad that with the government changes that were first started by the U.S. side and then retaliated by the Canadian side with regards to border tariffs and cross-border transactions. It’s crippled Point To Point to the point where it was only getting worse as the weeks went and our customer base was staying the same, but the actual incoming parcels and transactions had decreased till current day,” Calder told Jas Johal on CKNW.
She said business is down 75 per cent, and while February and March is typically slower, they don’t see the business recovering.
“We are primarily 99 per cent supported by Canadians using our business,” Calder said.
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“And as a born Canadian citizen, I didn’t prefer the way (Trump) was talking about Canadians. So I felt what all my customers felt. And there’s just, there was no need for that.”
Calder said the COVID-19 pandemic was hard enough on their business and Point Roberts, but the current political climate is too challenging to navigate.
“The difference between COVID, you couldn’t come across, and we stayed busy enough with mail (and) sorting people’s stuff,” she said.
“Whereas now with this, people are freely still allowed to cross the border. They’re just choosing not to.”
Calder said that in the first 10 days of March, they were already seeing about 1,000 fewer packages being delivered compared to the same time frame last March.
Point Roberts is a Washington state community but is geographically part of Canada.
The community of about 1,100 people is located just south of Tsawwassen, however, it relies on British Columbia for much of its commerce.
Calder said Point To Point Parcel will be closing in April.
“This one is even a scarier hit because it’s not about what we’re doing, it’s about what the government’s deciding to do,” she said.
“And I would like to see the doors closed with some dignity and grace. But at the same point, I need to make sure all of my customers are aware of the closure. I don’t want to see anybody upset that they hadn’t done anything for months, and then all of a sudden they think everything’s as normal and it’s not.”
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