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Shopify CEO defends small merchants caught up in US/Canada tariff war

Published

Feb 3, 2025

TopicB2C
Credit: Union Eleven (via Wikimedia Commons)

TL;DR

  • The U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, sparking a tariff war over perceived trade imbalances.
  • Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke criticized Canada's response, urging cooperation with the U.S. to resolve the trade conflict
  • Shopify, Canada's largest tech company, faces potential impacts on its digital ecosystem due to the tariffs.
Author

Paddle News Desk

Canada thrives when it works with America together. Win by helping America win. Trump believes that Canada has not held its side of the bargain.

Tobias Lütke

CEO and Founder | Shopify

Quick recap: The United States and Canada are in a tariff war spurred on by President Trump over what he labels as unbalanced practices between the two neighboring countries. The U.S. levied 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods. While the effects mostly concern physical goods like alcohol, food, and energy materials – nearly every cross-border merchant (and not to mention consumers) will feel the impact.

Shopify CEO weighs in: Tobias Lütke, the Canadian CEO and Founder of Shopify, weighed in on Canada's reaction and retaliation toward the tariffs, saying that Canadians want their government to do all the things that President Trump is demanding — and reprimanded outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not preventing the trade war.

"Canada thrives when it works with America together. Win by helping America win. Trump believes that Canada has not held its side of the bargain," Lütke wrote on X.

SaaS subscription impact: Shopify is worth nearly $150 billion, and is Canada’s biggest tech company and largest startup. It hosts online retail stores for millions of businesses of all sizes. But it also powers a vast digital-first ecosystem through its app store marketplace plugins that support and enhance its core e-commerce offerings.

What to watch: The tariffs are set to hit Canada especially hard because almost 75% of its exports go to the US, while only around 12% of American exports go to Canada. The downstream consequences extend beyond physical goods, and will eventually upend the entire supply chain and supporting tools and services surrounding it.