
Trade war with U.S. has not dampened foreign investors' appetite for Montreal
A Montreal economic development agency says the value of investment from foreign companies rose 55 per cent to $1.69 billion in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2024.
Preliminary data from Montréal International says the agency this year supported 29 projects in the greater Montreal area that created 1,866 jobs with an average salary of $101,000.
And despite tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump — and his recent threats to impose more — 46 per cent of foreign investment in Montreal so far this year is from American companies.
Stéphane Paquet, CEO of Montréal International, says the uncertainty around immigration is hurting investment in the city more than the trade war is.
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
Paquet says companies are looking for more stability in provincial and federal immigration policies so that firms can better predict labour market trends.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.

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Winnipeg Free Press
24 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump injects new dose of uncertainty in tariffs as he pushes start date back to Aug. 7
WASHINGTON (AP) — For weeks, President Donald Trump was promising the world economy would change on Friday with his new tariffs in place. It was an ironclad deadline, administration officials assured the public. But when Trump signed the order Thursday night imposing new tariffs on 68 countries and the European Union, the start date of the punishing import taxes was pushed back seven days so that the tariff schedule could be updated. The change — while potentially welcome news to countries that had not yet reached a deal with the U.S. — injected a new dose of uncertainty for consumers and businesses still wondering what's going to happen and when. Trump has promised that his tax hikes on the nearly $3 trillion in goods imported to the United States will usher in newfound wealth, launch a cavalcade of new factory jobs, reduce the budget deficits and, simply, get other countries to treat America with more respect. The vast tariffs risk jeopardizing America's global standing as allies feel forced into unfriendly deals. As taxes on the raw materials used by U.S. factories and basic goods, the tariffs also threaten to create new inflationary pressures and hamper economic growth — concerns the Trump White House has dismissed. Questions swirl around the tariffs despite Trump's eagerness As the clock ticked toward Trump's self-imposed deadline, few things seemed to be settled other than the president's determination to levy the taxes he has talked about for decades. The very legality of the tariffs remains an open question as a U.S. appeals court on Thursday heard arguments on whether Trump had exceeded his authority by declaring an 'emergency' under a 1977 law to charge the tariffs, allowing him to avoid congressional approval. Trump was ebullient as much of the world awaited what he would do. 'Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again,' he said Thursday morning on Truth Social. Others saw a policy carelessly constructed by the U.S. president, one that could impose harms gradually over time that would erode America's power and prosperity. 'The only things we'll know for sure on Friday morning are that growth-sapping U.S. import taxes will be historically high and complex, and that, because these deals are so vague and unfinished, policy uncertainty will remain very elevated,' said Scott Lincicome, a vice president of economics at the Cato Institute. 'The rest is very much TBD.' The new tariffs build off ones announced in the spring Trump initially imposed the Friday deadline after his previous 'Liberation Day' tariffs in April resulted in a stock market panic. His unusually high tariff rates unveiled then led to recession fears, prompting Trump to impose a 90-day negotiating period. When he was unable to create enough trade deals with other countries, he extended the timeline and sent out letters to world leaders that simply listed rates, prompting a slew of hasty agreements. Swiss imports will now be taxed at a higher rate — 39% — than the 31% Trump threatened in April, while Liechtenstein saw its rate slashed from 37% to 15%. Countries not listed in the Thursday night order would be charged a baseline 10% tariff. Trump negotiated trade frameworks over the past few weeks with the EU, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines — allowing the president to claim victories as other nations sought to limit his threat of charging even higher tariff rates. He said on Thursday there were agreements with other countries, but he declined to name them. Thursday began with a palpable sense of tension The EU was awaiting a written agreement on its 15% tariff deal. Switzerland and Norway were among the dozens of countries that did not know what their tariff rate would be, while Trump agreed after a Thursday morning phone call to keep Mexico's tariffs at 25% for a 90-day negotiating period. European leaders face blowback for seeming to cave to Trump, even as they insist that this is merely the start of talks and stress the importance of maintaining America's support of Ukraine's fight against Russia. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has already indicated that his country can no longer rely on the U.S. as an ally, and Trump declined to talk to him on Thursday. India, with its 25% tariff announced Wednesday by Trump, may no longer benefit as much from efforts to pivot manufacturing out of China. While the Trump administration has sought to challenge China's manufacturing dominance, it is separately in extended trade talks with that country, which faces a 30% tariff and is charging a 10% retaliatory rate on the U.S. Major companies came into the week warning that tariffs would begin to squeeze them financially. Ford Motor Co. said it anticipated a net $2 billion hit to earnings this year from tariffs. French skincare company Yon-Ka is warning of job freezes, scaled-back investment and rising prices. It's unclear whether Trump's new tariffs will survive a legal challenge Federal judges sounded skeptical Thursday about Trump's use of a 1977 law to declare the long-standing U.S. trade deficit a national emergency that justifies tariffs on almost every country on Earth. 'You're asking for an unbounded authority,' Judge Todd Hughes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told a Justice Department lawyer representing the administration. The judges didn't immediately rule, and the case is expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court. The Trump White House has pointed to the increase in federal revenues as a sign that the tariffs will reduce the budget deficit, with $127 billion in customs and duties collected so far this year — about $70 billion more than last year. New tariffs threaten to raise inflation rates There are not yet signs that tariffs will lead to more domestic manufacturing jobs, and the U.S. economy now has 14,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than it did in April. On Thursday, one crucial measure of inflation, known as the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, showed that prices have climbed 2.6% over the 12 months that ended in June, a sign that inflation may be accelerating as the tariffs flow through the economy. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. The prospect of higher inflation from the tariffs has caused the Federal Reserve to hold off on additional cuts to its benchmark rates, a point of frustration for Trump, who on Truth Social, called Fed Chair Jerome Powell a 'TOTAL LOSER.' But ahead of Trump's tariffs, Powell seemed to suggest that the tariffs had put the U.S. economy and much of the world into a state of unknowns. 'There are many uncertainties left to resolve,' Powell told reporters Wednesday. 'So, yes, we are learning more and more. It doesn't feel like we're very close to the end of that process. And that's not for us to judge, but it does — it feels like there's much more to come.' __ AP writer Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.


CBC
25 minutes ago
- CBC
Trump increases tariff on Canada to 35%, White House says
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order increasing tariffs on Canadian goods that don't meet the terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement to 35 per cent.
Montreal Gazette
an hour ago
- Montreal Gazette
Trump signs executive order pushing tariffs on Canada to 35%
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order pushing tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent beginning on Friday, following through on a threat to raise duties if Ottawa didn't make a trade deal. The White House confirmed the tariffs would not hit goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, commonly known as CUSMA. A fact sheet from the White House said Canada 'failed to cooperate in curbing the ongoing flood of fentanyl' and also pointed to Ottawa's implementation of retaliatory tariffs. Canadian officials had been tempering expectations that a trade deal would materialize ahead of Trump's deadline and Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he'll only make an agreement that is good for Canada. Trump said earlier Thursday he had not 'spoken to Canada' but did reference that 'he's called' — suggesting Carney may have reached out hours before the 35 per cent tariff was set to hit. The Canadian Press has contacted Carney's office for confirmation but has not yet received a response. Ontario Premier Doug Ford posted on social media that 'Canada shouldn't settle for anything less than the right deal.' He repeated his call for the federal government to respond with a 50 per cent tariff on U.S. steel and aluminum. 'Now is not the time to roll over. We need to stand our ground,' Ford said. Trump dampened the prospect of a deal with Canada in a post on social media early Thursday morning that said it would be very hard to make a deal after Carney announced Wednesday that Ottawa intends to recognize a Palestinian state. Trump told reporters at the White House that he 'didn't like that' but that it was 'not a deal-breaker.' When asked about the holdup in Canadian negotiations, Trump said 'they have to pay a fair rate.' The president also misrepresented agricultural duties, complained about Canadian military spending and said Canada has been treating the United States badly for years. While Trump didn't mention fentanyl, the White House fact sheet focused on the drug to justify increasing the tariffs. 'Given Canada's continued failure to arrest traffickers, seize illicit drugs, or coordinate with U.S. law enforcement and Canada's retaliation against the United States for the President's actions to address the unusual and extraordinary threat to America, further presidential action is necessary and appropriate to protect American lives and the national security and foreign policy of the United States,' the White House said. U.S. government data shows a miniscule amount of fentanyl is seized at the border with Canada compared to Mexico. Ottawa responded to Trump's concerns of cross-border trafficking with a $1.3 billion boosted border plan. Ottawa appointed a 'fentanyl czar' and announced a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl trafficking and money laundering, and deployed additional helicopters and drones along the border. Trump announced a 90-day extension on trade talks for Mexico Thursday after a phone conversation with President Claudia Sheinbaum. He said it was because the 'complexities of a Deal with Mexico are somewhat different than other Nations because of both the problems, and assets, of the Border.' 'Additionally, Mexico has agreed to immediately terminate its Non Tariff Trade Barriers, of which there were many,' Trump said. In a separate executive order Thursday Trump increased his so-called 'Liberation Day' tariffs on many other nations, with those duties to be implemented in seven days. The order applied to 68 countries, as well as the 27-member European Union, which negotiated its new tariff rate in a deal announced earlier in the week. Countries that were not listed would face a baseline 10 per cent tariff. While Trump continued to claim in posts on social media that tariffs are making 'America GREAT & RICH Again,' the president's main tool for realigning global trade faced some sharp questions from federal appellate judges in court earlier Thursday. The Trump administration's lawyer argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that there are still checks and balances on the president's powers and he has the authority to use a national security statute to impose duties — despite the fact that the word 'tariff' is found nowhere in the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977. The act, usually referred to by the acronym IEEPA, gives the U.S. president authority to control economic transactions after declaring an emergency. No previous president had ever used it for tariffs and the U.S. Constitution reserves power over taxes and tariffs for Congress. Members of the 11-judge panel on Thursday repeatedly questioned the Trump's administration's justifications for using IEEPA to implement the so-called 'Liberation Day' and fentanyl-related tariffs 'If the president says there's a problem with our military readiness and he puts a 20 per cent tax on coffee, that doesn't seem to necessarily deal with (it)' said Chief Circuit Judge Kimberly Moore. No decision was issued from the bench Thursday and a White House spokesperson has said the case is expected to go before the Supreme Court.