The current U.S. tariffs mean the importer of Canadian-made products is generally responsible for paying the tariff to the U.S. government.

But Melich says the way his sales and shipping are structured requires him to prepay the tariff before his products cross the border — leaving his business to absorb the cost rather than passing it along to his American customers.

He says, right now, he’s able to take on the cost and is not willing to pass the additional fees to his customers.

He adds that his business plans to absorb the extra costs of importing U.S.-made appliances for as long as possible — and he isn’t the only business planning on doing that.

That also includes working with the American suppliers to find ‘creative’ ways to reduce the financial hit and avoid passing the extra fees off to the customer, including reducing promotional discounts offered by their suppliers.

“Those brands coming from the States normally give us 20 per cent off on certain promotions or up to 20 per cent off, that might be brought down to maybe 10 per cent off,” said Zahler.

“If we can hold off and we’ll make a little less money and the manufacturers make a little less money, and we can eat it and then absorb it until there’s a resolution, that’s what we’re hoping to do, like last time,” said Zahler.

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