Vermont lawmakers, state officials and businesses describe economic harm from tariffs on Canada

Members of the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee and the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee held a joint hearing on tariffs affecting Vermont and its Canadian trading partners, saying the measures announced at the federal level have immediate economic consequences and create widespread uncertainty.

The hearing opened with remarks from legislative leaders including Speaker Krowinski and Senate Pro Tem Phil Baruth, who described the tariffs as an economic and diplomatic wound to long-standing Vermont–Canada ties. Secretary Lindsay Curley of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development told the committees the governor established an interagency tariff team to advise him and to gather information about impacts on businesses. Curley said the state set up a high-level website to direct businesses to services and to connect them with the agency's trade staff and outside experts.

The nut of the testimony was simple: businesses need clear, practical help to trace supply chains, prove origin where possible and identify steps to preserve contracts and cash flow. Curley and Tim Tierney, director of international trade and business recruitment, said Vermont officials are emphasizing three tasks: (1) help companies confirm whether goods qualify under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) certificate-of-origin rules; (2) point firms to customs brokers, freight forwarders and bonding/foreign‑trade zone options; and (3) provide a single place for businesses to request help.

Tierney said many companies can self-certify USMCA origin to avoid duties on North American content, but that the shifting set of tariff announcements makes planning difficult. He described the current environment as one where "the goalposts keep moving every day, every hour," and urged businesses to file certificates of origin where appropriate.

State officials also described available mitigation tools. Curley noted Vermont has one federal foreign trade zone that covers Burlington and surrounding counties and said bonding warehouses can defer duty payments until imports leave storage. Both Curley and Tierney said the state maintains a list of trade experts under contract to help with complex customs or import cases that small businesses cannot staff internally.

The hearing included updates from the federal delegation's offices. Fauna Hurley, from Senator Peter Welch's office, described Welch's recent legislative activity in Washington that seeks to rein in unilateral tariff authority and to repeal or review the recent tariff actions. Hurley said the senator helped convene roundtables in Vermont and is working to collect business stories for federal hearings.

Legislators and presenters repeatedly framed the problem as twofold: direct cost increases when goods and energy cross the border and indirect damage to long-standing business relationships and tourism that depend on predictable treatment. Several committee members urged the agency to expand the website's content and to coordinate more closely with Canadian provincial offices and the Quebec delegation to make resources useful on both sides of the border.

The hearing closed with committee chairs saying they would reconvene officials and business groups to refine state-level support, and with a pledge to keep state–Canadian lines of communication open while federal processes play out.