English
Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies are forcing Canadian wool producers to rethink decades-old trade relationships with the United States, pushing many to seek alternative markets in Europe and Asia while others cut ties with American partners entirely.
Tariffs Disrupt a Long-Standing Cross-Border Trade
The U.S. has imposed 50 percent tariffs on greasy wool imports and certain finished wool products. Greasy wool is the raw, unwashed fleece shorn directly from sheep, containing lanolin, hay and other barn debris. Canadian producers have long relied on American facilities to scour and process this raw material into usable yarn and textiles, since Canada lacks comparable industrial-scale processing capacity.
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Matthew Rowe, chair of the Canadian Wool Council, describes the situation as an unfortunate rupture in a relationship built over generations. “Just as that’s happening, our biggest single market — the U.S. — is kind of closed to us now,” he said. “If you’re relying on cross-border supply chains to get something produced, it just doesn’t make economic sense anymore with these tariffs.”
In response, a growing number of Canadian producers are redirecting raw wool shipments to China and the Czech Republic to sidestep U.S. trade barriers. Rowe warns that if the dispute remains unresolved, this fall could prove especially damaging. Producers typically earn a full year’s worth of profit during the autumn season, when consumers shop for winter clothing.
Ottawa Yarn Shop Owner Takes a Personal Stand
Judy Enright Smith, owner of the Wabi Sabi yarn shop in Ottawa, says the trade dispute has moved well beyond commerce for her. When her American supplier last visited, she greeted him wearing an “Elbows Up” T-shirt. “At first, it was business,” she said. “Now, it’s personal.”
Enright Smith says she no longer considers it morally acceptable to stock American yarn labels, despite their popularity with some customers. She is now sourcing more products from Europe and actively seeking Canadian alternatives. When her U.S. supplier contacts her this year to make a sale, she plans to decline.
She also pushed back against a message her American supplier sent to Canadian clients at the start of the trade war, warning them they would be “hurting the little guy” if they stopped buying. Enright Smith read that message as a self-serving attempt to shift blame onto Canadians for damage caused by Trump’s trade policies.
One Canadian Mill Largely Insulated from the Fallout
New Brunswick’s Briggs and Little, founded in 1857 and one of Canada’s oldest operating wool mills, has managed to avoid the worst of the tariff impact. The mill sources its wool from a cooperative in Carleton Place, Ontario, and processes everything on-site, keeping its supply chain entirely within Canada.
However, even Briggs and Little faces some exposure. Office manager Leah Little says the mill uses certain American-made machinery parts and materials that are now subject to tariffs. “We do hope this mess is resolved before we need to replace any of our machinery parts that are not available in Canada,” she said. Rowe describes the mill as a rare exception in the Canadian wool industry and a strong option for consumers wanting to buy local.
Producers Push for a Rebuilt Domestic Wool Industry
Anna Hunter, a shepherd and wool mill owner at Long Way Homestead in Ste. Genevieve, Manitoba, stopped shipping to the United States last year after Trump cancelled the de minimis exemption, which had previously allowed imports valued under US$800 to enter duty-free. Hunter is also the author of The True Cost of Wool.
She says the tariff blow landed on an industry already weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of global supply chains. “All of a sudden, Canadian wool wasn’t moving anywhere than the United States. It was sitting in warehouses and because there was no resilience in how we sold, or where we sold our wool, there was no market,” she said.
Hunter currently processes around 5,000 pounds of wool per year, a fraction of what her sheep produce. She envisions a restructured Canadian wool industry built around decentralized regional processing facilities capable of handling different wool varieties and supporting a stronger domestic textile sector.
Achieving that vision, she argues, requires both government and consumers to stop treating wool as a mere byproduct of sheep farming and to recognize it as a commodity worth investing in independently. She also urges Canadian knitters to check labels and choose domestic products. “We’re going to have to really wrestle with how our clothing system has become completely disconnected from agriculture and from our own economy,” she said.
Rowe says the Canadian Wool Council is advocating for expanded domestic mill capacity and new supply chains to reduce dependence on the United States. Still, he acknowledges that unwinding ties forged over generations carries a real emotional cost for those in the industry. “We don’t want all our wool in one bag, to modify the expression,” he said. “We need to spread around our opportunities, but I think that doesn’t lessen the hurt, and even the sense of betrayal, that many of the people in our value chain are feeling.”
