Spotlight on Industry Headlines
TRUMP’S TARIFFS ON CANADIAN ALUMINUM WILL BENEFIT FOREIGN COMPANIES T he Canadian ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said that biggest beneficiaries from the Trump administration’s 10 per cent tar- iff on imports of aluminum from Canada will be a Swiss trading company and Rusal aluminum of Russia rather than U.S. manufacturers. This looks to be more of a political move by Trump than an economic one. However Ambassador Hillman has also gone on record as saying that Canada hopes the U.S. will reconsider these tariffs and that the Canadi- an government is ready to retaliate and prepared to respond “forcefully” with the objective of the countermeasures to have the “strongest possible impact” on the U.S. exports specific to aluminum and aluminum-containing products, not other goods like agriculture. C anada economy gained 419,000 jobs in July, which is more than most economists forecast, as Covid-19 restrictions start to lift, and more businesses and parts of the econo- my are allowed to reopen for business. Data from Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey showed the unemployment rate inched down to 10.9 per cent in July, while the jobless rate was 12.3 per cent, down from a record high of 13.7 per cent in May. Economists had expected a gain of 400,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 11 per cent for July, so this is welcomed news. However, most of the gains were part-time work, which increased 11.3 per cent (345,000 jobs) with a 0.5 percent increase (73,000 jobs) in full-time work. CANADA BEATS JOB EXPECTATIONS
U.S. ECONOMY SHRINKS IN SECOND QUARTER T he business numbers are in from the first full month of the COVID-19 pandemic lock- down in April. Statistics Canada reported that there were 88,187 business closures, which is more than double the 39,078 number that closed shop for the same month for the prior year. It was also that few- er new businesses are opening as the economy had 32,803 new businesses open in April, down about 18 per cent from a year earlier. Data also showed that the numbers of business- es operation in Canada for April was the lowest since the statistics agency began tracking this data in 2015 at 679,336. COVID-19 CAUSES BUSINESS CLOSURES TO DOUBLE IN CANADA N ordstrom has added itself to the list of brick and mortar retailers that are tempo- rarily closing down to limit the spread of COVID-19, joining many retailers, including Nike and Apple, which have closed their stores tempo- rarily to allow employees to be safe at home, and have encouraged consumers to do the same. The retailer announced that more than 360 stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico will be closed at least two weeks and the company will continue to pay staff and offer benefits. Nordstrom’s e-commerce platform, which ac- counts for about a third of the company’s sales, will remain fully operational during this period.
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JUNE 2020 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2020
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