Trevor Tombe: How much did Canada’s trade retaliation and boycotts actually hurt the U.S.?

June 26, 2025

In short, government measures—like removing U.S. wine from store shelves or imposing tariffs—had clear, measurable impacts. The same cannot be said of consumer boycotts. While individual choices may have shifted behaviour at the margins, the data reveal no consistent or large-scale changes in imports outside of tariffed goods.