Tariffs threatened by U.S. on Canada are scheduled to come into effect from tomorrow (Tuesday March 4), which may impact the thousands of job – especially in Oshawa – that are linked to American companies.
Durham Region, with the cities, towns, and townships as well as the chambers of commerce and boards of trade, have combined forces to create a plan to support the impacted businesses and residents in the region.
The Durham Economic Task Force (DETF) is working on:
- Economic Development teams from across Durham Region are reaching out to businesses asking how the region can help. It can offer advice on ways to mitigate impacts. It can make connections to other government services, and would be happy to share the top 10 things an importer or exporter can do to prepare for tariffs.
- DETF has been providing information about Durham Region businesses to the province to support it in a Team Canada response.
- It has prepared a centralized landing page – www.investdurham.ca/tariff – with information on who to contact, and what support may be available.
- It is quickly putting together a trade diversification support program. If your product can be sold in international markets beyond the USA, the DETF wants to know! In fact, its team will be at the world’s largest industrial technology trade fair in March, and it would love to showcase local products to potential European buyers (did you know Canada and Europe enjoy nearly 100 per cent free trade through CETA?).
- DETF regularly promotes independently owned and operated producers, tourism operators, and food and beverage makers in Durham. To amplify this even further, it will launch a promotional campaign to encourage Canadians to shop locally and visit Durham.
- The task forcewill be meeting regularly to collaborate on the best ways to support Durham businesses, and residents.
The DETF is a collaborative response team made up of Durham Region’s Economic Development and Tourism team; local municipal economic development teams from Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington, Brock, Uxbridge and Scugog, and the region’s chambers of commerce and boards of trade.
The members also engage with other key partners like Spark Centre and 1855 Technology Accelerator, post-secondary institutions, business improvement areas (BIAs), the Business Advisory Centre of Durham (BACD), provincial and federal partners, industry associations, and others.
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Just a stones throw to Detroit from Windsor…or something higher calibre.