In 1997, Darrin Smith, 58, founded JessEm Tool Company, a woodworking tools business named for his twin daughters, Jesse and Emily. Today, JessEm Tool operates out of an 85,000–square-foot facility in Moncton, New Brunswick, with 65 employees and an annual growth rate of 15–20 percent. According to Smith, the company’s sales are on track to hit $17 million this year—80 percent of it in the U.S.
At least that’s how it looked before President Donald Trump slapped a 25 percent across-the-board tariff on imports from Canada (oil and petroleum products will be hit with “only” a 10 percent levy), along with levies on Mexican and Chinese imports. Trump cited the “threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs”—though fentanyl smuggled from Canada accounts for just a small amount of the U.S. supply.