Following the decision by US President Donald Trump to impose customs duties on certain products in Canada, it has been reported that sales of American products in Canadian markets have “rapidly declined.” According to The Hill newspaper, Michael Medline, the CEO of Empire Comany, the parent company of Canadian food retailers, made a statement regarding the issue. Medline stated, “The share of American products in our total sales is rapidly decreasing.” Expressing that they loudly and clearly heard their customers’ demands for Canadian products, Medline mentioned that the company’s sales average for US products had recently dropped by 12 percent. Medline pointed out that the main concern for the company when US tariffs against Canada came into effect was production, stating, “Our supplier partners based in the US who manufacture are directly affected by retaliatory customs duties. This puts pressure on them. As a result, they may want to reflect these rising costs. Some have started testing our position on this issue.” TENSION IN US-CANADA CUSTOMS DUTIES The additional 25% customs duty imposed by the US on products imported from Canada and Mexico began on March 4. Trump later announced that they would not apply customs duties to products covered by the “US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)” until April 2. President Trump had stated that additional tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the country would also come into effect on March 12. On March 10, Premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, Doug Ford, said that they would impose an additional 25% charge on electricity provided to US states in response to Washington’s customs duties. Ford emphasized that they would not hesitate to increase this rate if necessary, stating, “If the US escalates this, I will not hesitate to completely cut off electricity. I feel very sorry for the American people because they are not the ones who started this trade war. There is only one person responsible, and that person is President Trump.” The White House had warned Canada on March 12 that the plans of the Ontario province to completely cut off the electricity supplied to the US could have “serious consequences.”