DETROIT – Protests were held on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge, leading to days of closures and delays.
Losses incurred are a vitally important lesson, says Economist Patrick Anderson.
“We again learned just how vital trade between Canada and the U.S., particularly between Windsor and Detroit, is to the whole U.S. and Canadian economies,” said Anderson.
In a report released last hour, the Anderson Economic Group estimates staggering losses resulting in lost direct wages are nearly $145M. Automakers on the side of the border lost $155M of production, and the combined direct automaker losses on both sides of the border were nearly $300M.
Automakers may make up a lot of that with future production, but Anderson estimates small businesses and lower-tier auto suppliers may never get made up.
“But when you have $300M of goods going across the border, and you interrupt it for a week, guess what, even a fraction being lost still costs us quite a bit,” Anderson said.
Chairman of the International Bridge Company Matthew Moroun put out a statement Monday, Feb. 14, saying, “I’d like to thank everyone who came together to reopen the Ambassador Bridge. Now we must join together to come up with an actionable plan that will protect and secure all border crossings in the Canada/U.S. Corridor and ensure that this kind of disruption to critical infrastructure will never happen again.”
Anderson agreed with that assessment saying Canada took more of the losses than the U.S. He warns of the ripple effect economically like people looking to buy a particular domestic Ford or GM car that did not get made. They may buy something else instead, which is a big problem for the U.S.
