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Here’s something you don’t often hear in letters like this: Canada has not always played fair with Maine.
Ottawa protects its dairy farmers with over-quota tariffs above 200%. Canadian governments have also backed their lobster industry at every link in the chain, which is a big part of why so much of Maine’s catch is processed across the border. Those are real grievances.
But a 50% tariff on $20 billion of Canadian goods, answered by Canadian tariffs in return, doesn’t fix any of that. It just sends the bill to Maine.
No state is more tied to Canada than ours. In 2024, Canada supplied about 70% of Maine’s imports and bought roughly $1.3 billion of our exports.
I owned and ran the Union River Lobster Pot, and I served in the Maine Senate. Small-business owners can plan around a bad season or a jump in costs. What they can’t plan around is a rulebook that changes every few weeks.
I want more lobster processed in Maine. I want Canada to honor the dairy access it agreed to. Those goals are worth fighting for at the negotiating table with real enforcement. They aren’t won by blanket tariffs that tax Maine families and small businesses for problems they didn’t create.
Sen. Susan Collins has urged both governments to return to the table and reach a fair agreement. She’s right, and our delegation should keep pushing for the remainder of this Congress and in the next.
Maine businesses are ready to invest, grow and compete. Give them rules they can plan around.
Brian Langley
Ellsworth