Tariff Response Feedback

Dear good ETEE friends,
I am so sorry for the actions of our president. He is a master at sowing chaos without regards to anyone else. Some of us here in California would be happy to be part of Canada!
Sincerely
Kate Kramer

I am sorry that this is happening. It is so unnecessary.

As a fellow small business owner, I encourage you to stay focused on your business rather than getting caught up in the news cycle. Amplifying fear through communication only adds to its momentum. Change is inevitable, and while it can feel like a rollercoaster, maintaining a steady mindset will help you navigate it effectively. Stay grounded, adapt as needed, and embrace the journey with confidence. Cheers!

Putting politics aside. There is a lot of blame to spread around.

There is a huge problem with fentanyl and Mexican drug cartels, and their affiliates operating in Canada.
China is also playing a dirty game using it’s network of smurfs to send small packets through the mail service.

The Canadian gov’t didn’t help any when it gave “lip service” in 2017 promising the US president it would increase NATO spending but didn’t.
The CAD gov’t isn’t helping when it relies on the US military to drive Russian and Chinese military ships out of the Canadian Arctic waters

The US President is limited in his powers, he tried to play the diplomatic game the 1st time, but clearly he learned his lesson. Now he’s found some levers and tools and he’s using them.

We might not like it, but, it’s like I said, there’s plenty of blame to go around—and none of it is helpful.

What can be done? You’ve got 4 yrs to live under the threat of tarrifs. 90% of your business is/was in the US.
Can you open a wholey owned subsidiary (eteeu? uetee? Other name? I don’t even know what etee means) in the US that sources its materials and ships only within the US? While the etee parent company oversees global operations?

Fyi, I purchased a cosmetic product from a US company December 24th. It was supposed to arrive 4-7 days later. The shipper sent the package to Ontario California instead of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The package went through LA and got stuck for a week because of the fires. It arrived at a Canadian border crossing on Jan 22nd (before any tarrifs took effect). It was held at CAD customs under “review” because although it was tarrif free when purchased, and tarrif free when it arrived, it would not be tarrif free on February 1st. Then, when the tarrifs were delayed, the package should have been released but by that time, there was a backlog. I ended up having to pay the CAD gov’t a retaliatory tarrif (due to tarrifs on aluminum and steel) on a product that is supposed to be duty/tarrif free.

So very sorry for all this. Please know most of us do not support the insanity and can not wait for it to end.
I do not want you to raise prices, but you must do what you need to do in order to stay in business.
We all need to fight the good fight. And the planet is worth fighting for.

Right now our family is going through the process of stepping away from shopping at “big business” stores. We are getting our groceries from a farm/coop small business and what we’d like to do is increase our support of other small businesses such as etee. Maybe it will be expensive for a while but eventually it will get better, especially if more people choose to shop at etee for the right reasons.

Just wanted to offer a few tariff related thoughts. First and foremost, please don’t be discouraged by drops or fluctuations in American orders. Many of us are confused, uncertain, if not outright frighted by this collosal crapshow. Many of us are trying to prepare for massive inflation and austerity in our personal spending. If you can, plan for insanity. Prepare for the worst. If it doesn’t happen, we can all be surprised together. I’m a brand new American customer and have my very first load of laundry with your concentrated powder in the machine as we speak. I think the concentrated cleaning powders are a genius solution. Please keep up the good work.

As an American who is appalled at our current administration, I can only say that I will continue to purchase from etee and will take on the additional cost in hopes that in 4 loooooonnnnngggg years the US will return to valuing our partnership with Canada.