Trade war dispatch from Canada

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you run a business when a trade war is brewing? As President Trump's tariffs kick in - or are paused or are restarted - businesses around the world are trying to navigate the uncertainty.

And, while trade is this big global thing, it is made up of individual farmers and business owners and truckers and manufacturers. Millions of people all over the world are being forced to reevaluate relationships that they've been building for years.

Canadians have had a head start - Trump announced his plan to tariff Canadian goods on day one in office. So in today's episode: how one Canadian small business is trying to manage the chaos.

This episode was produced by Sylvie Douglis and edited by Sally Helm. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Heads up, in this episode, we are not able to consistently pronounce the word pecan.
0:05.5	Sometimes it's pecan.
0:06.6	Sometimes it's pecan.
0:08.4	Okay, you've been warned.
0:10.7	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:15.6	So I guess would you mind introducing yourself?
0:18.4	My name is Alex.
0:19.2	Alex Rodriguez, and I have a small business here in Vancouver, Canada,
0:24.2	called NutHut.
0:26.2	How do you not giggle when you say NutHut?
0:28.6	Oh, I don't.
0:29.8	I had years of thinking, I should change the name.
0:32.2	This is ridiculous.
0:33.4	We have a physical location, and this is probably TMI,
0:36.6	but we have a physical location with a big word Nuthadthage.
0:39.1	And there are instances of guys showing up in front of our building and posing in front of the sign and taking selfies.
0:48.4	Going Nuthut, yeah, all right.
0:51.2	Anyhow, Alex has been running her small business in Vancouver for almost a decade.
0:56.6	Nut Hut is like a specialty shop.
0:58.4	Alex sells just nuts, seeds, chocolate, and dried fruit, mostly from small, sustainably run farms.
1:05.1	And finding those farmers is one of the main things she focuses on.
1:09.6	And that is not easy.
	...

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