TORONTO — When customers in the United States place orders with Toronto jewelry company Suetables, Sue Henderson does something unconventional for a business owner: she asks them if they’re really sure they want to make the purchase.
Henderson double checks because on-and-off again tariffs have driven up fees on products crossing the border.
“Just to give you an example, someone would order a $200 pair of earrings and click through saying yes, I’ll pay the tariffs, yes, I’ll pay the tariffs, yes, I’ll pay the tariffs, but then the order would arrive to the concierge and you’ve got a $70 tariff on a $200 pair of earrings,” Henderson said.
“They’d say, ‘Well, I don’t want them.’”
Abandoning orders at the checkout and border happened so often over the last year that the U.S. went from 15 per cent of Suetable’s business to almost nothing.
Henderson fears U.S….
