‘Unreliable:’ Hamilton entrepreneur says he’s losing at least $100K per month to tariff policy

Local entrepreneur Ron Foxcroft, the founder of Fox 40 and CEO of Fluke Transport, is blowing the whistle on president Donald Trump’s tariff policy.

“The president of the U.S. is financially illiterate, his communication expert is financially illiterate on steroids,” Foxcroft said in an interview.

“We used to do a one year, three year, five year plan […] For us, a long term plan is impossible. We need to do a 24-hour plan.”

Foxcroft says he sends over 2 million whistles to the U.S. each year, and his trucks cross the border more than 2,000 times annually.

“Quite frankly, any tariff above 1 per cent is too much,” he said in an interview.

“Since Nov. 6, one of our warehouses of product destined for the U.S. is down 40 per cent.”

He says that’s a loss of about $100,000 per month.

More recently, a shipment of his whistles was rejected at the border.

“We sent a Fox 40 shipment down to the border, because the ring on the whistle and lanyard was deemed to be aluminum and steel and subject to tariffs,” he said.

“We had to certify where it was produced and its value. It was less than one per cent of the value, and once we did that we went back two days later and crossed.”

Fox 40 ships more than 20,000 whistles every day around the world, and Foxcroft says this is an opportunity to expand their reach even further.

“At Fox 40 we manufacture proudly in Ontario and export to 120 countries,” he said.

“One country has become unreliable, but there are 119 other countries.”

READ MORE: ‘Liberation Day:’ Trump’s new tariff rollout does not affect Canada