JAY, Vt. — Mike Desmarais, who sells snow grooming equipment at a dealer in Newport, Vt., is planning to deliver three new vehicles to Canadian customers this month. The machines currently cost about $500,000 Canadian dollars each, he said — but soon, they could cost far more.
Two of the machines were made in the U.S. If the tariffs Canada plans to impose next week take effect, in response to the latest tariffs enacted by President Donald Trump, they will be subject to new duties of 50%, he said. That CA$250,000 per vehicle is an amount so large it’s hard to know what his small business should do in response.
“How do you address that?” Desmarais asked a room of business leaders from around the state Tuesday, speaking at a panel hosted by U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
Throughout the panel, hosted about 5 miles south of the U.S.-Canada border at Jay Peak Resort, Desmarais and others shared a similar sentiment. They thought business was on the upswing after a slump caused by Canadians who have spurned Vermont since Trump took office a second time. But the president’s newest tariffs, which took effect last month, washed away that glimmer of hope.
In recent weeks, “the workbooks have just slammed shut,” Desmarais said.
Last year, when Trump first imposed tariffs on Canada — which have since been ruled illegal — “Canadians were disappointed. They were disillusioned. They were sad. They were surprised,” said Steve Wright, the president of Jay Peak Resort. The resort, which typically draws half its visitors from Canada, has said it saw a 35% drop in cross-border visitors over the 2025-26 ski season.
“This year around trade policies, they’re angry,” he said. “And you can’t talk to anger.”
Jasper Hill Farm, the renowned cheesemaker in Greensboro, Vt., had its worst business year ever in 2025, co-founder Mateo Kehler said. The company had been rapidly growing its business in Canada, he said, until relations between the two countries plummeted last year and that growth “went absolutely cold.”
The company was excited recently when a Canadian importer put in an order for the upcoming holiday season, he said. He saw it as a sign of things turning a corner. But then, the importer canceled after Trump announced the latest round of tariffs.
“So it looked like half a step forward, and about three steps back,” Kehler said.
Jasper Hill has been modernizing its manufacturing facility at the Vermont Food Venture Center in nearby Hardwick, Vt. The company has had to pay tariffs as high as 50% on new cheesemaking equipment it’s bought from Canada for the project, he said, costs that have been “devastating” to its bottom line.
Before the latest tariffs were announced, it ordered another machine to automate a particularly tedious part of the cheesemaking process. But the company has not taken delivery of it yet and left it on the other side of the border, because no one is sure exactly how much it’s going to cost, he said.
“It becomes almost impossible to manage a budget within the context of this environment,” he said. “It’s horrendous.”
Welch, at the event, touted a bill he introduced last week with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that would repeal the 1930 federal law Trump used to enact the latest tariffs and that would order refunds to everyone who has paid the new duties so far.
The senator acknowledged that the bill has little chance of becoming law with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress. While a growing number of GOP senators have voiced opposition to at least parts of Trump’s trade plans, the president’s policies enjoy far broader support among Republicans in the U.S. House.
“If you’re a member of Congress, and you’ve been elected to represent the people you represent, you’ve got to put them first,” Welch said.
Desmarais, the snow equipment dealer, said he appreciated the bill but thinks that the only solution is more members of Congress getting elected this fall who will repudiate the president’s efforts. He said he’s unsure how his company can continue operating in Vermont, or out of its offices in Wisconsin and Quebec, without a shift in political power.
“If these tariffs stay active, we’re not going to have a business,” he said. “We’re going to close.”
This story was first published by VtDigger and is republished with permission as part of the Vermont Journalism Trust’s Community News Sharing Project.