Canadian-American relations | A culinary event killed by the Trump effect

(Greensboro, Vermont) At first glance, Willey’s Store, a modest, crooked building clad in white clapboard, is not the place where one would expect to witness the culinary communion of two peoples.

However, this store in Greensboro, in northern Vermont, has long attracted customers from both sides of the border, who come to pick up their favorite cheeses, produced by Jasper Hill Farm, next door.

Side by side, on a creaky floor worn by 125 years of shopping, Canadians and Americans snap up Withersbrook blues, recently awarded the World Cheese Awards, and Harbison, a creamy cheese that gets its woody notes from its spruce bark packaging.

For these enthusiasts, the border was a detail: what mattered was the cheese. Its reputation has made this store and this village a popular destination, giving this town a little international character.

“This cheese is so popular that people come in with their coolers and stock up on it,” says store manager Christina Hernandez. “They spend a few hundred dollars. »

The Trump effect weighs down Vermont

But since the return of Donald Trump, Greensboro and its 800 residents are missing Canadian customers. Disturbed by his threats of annexation, outraged by his accusations of cross-border drug trafficking and outraged by his customs duties on Canadian products, the northern neighbors have made themselves rare, even given up on their American excursions.

At Willey’s Store, sales fell by a third in 2025, resulting in a drop of US$14,000 for Jasper Hill cheeses, notably due to the loss of Canadian customers.

And at Hill Farmstead, an award-winning brewery that’s another major draw in Greensboro, the situation isn’t any rosier.

Since January 2025, Hill Farmstead has lost 25 to 30% of its revenue, a decline “directly attributable” to the deterioration of relations with Canada under the Trump administration, says Bob Montgomery, its director of quality.

“Our region has always struggled to find its economic engine, and the Canadian clientele was crucial,” he says.

Like other small towns in this sparsely populated region, one of the least affluent in New England, Greensboro depends on tourists from the North to support its hotels, restaurants and stores.

But “the impact is not just economic,” underlines Mr. Montgomery. In Greensboro, residents are mourning two losses: their Canadian customers, who contribute to the local economy, and the no-fuss relationship with them, which they took for granted.

From the start of tensions last winter, “attendance took a nosedive in one week,” says Mr. Montgomery. Crossings at the Quebec-Vermont border fell 30% in 2025 and spending on Canadian credit cards plummeted by half, according to state data.

Some Canadians say they refuse to contribute to the American economy. Others, for the first time, feel unsafe when crossing customs, a feeling more often associated with the southern border.

Émilie no longer goes to the United States

This is the case of Émilie Laferrière, a Montrealer who often went to Vermont with her partner, an American who grew up there. Each summer was punctuated by visits to the in-laws and camping in the parks of Vermont. But since the inauguration of Donald Trump, M^me Laferrière no longer goes there. The only exception is a visit to the in-laws in December, to celebrate Thanksgiving belatedly.

On the one hand, she does not want to spend in a country whose leaders are so hostile towards Canada. On the other hand, the idea of ​​being in the United States, as a Canadian and as a gay, half-Asian woman, brings apprehension.

Donald Trump has little support in Vermont, a famously liberal state won in 2024 by Kamala Harris with a 30-point lead. In Greensboro, 376 voters voted for Harris, or 75% of the total.

But just to the north, where Vermont meets Quebec, all the border towns voted for Trump, complicating perceptions of his impact on the regional economy.

Not all of northern Vermont’s problems date from Trump’s return to power. Young people have long fled south to more prosperous cities, making local recruitment difficult. At the same time, the housing crisis has worsened since 2020, when urban telecommuters from other states surged: Home prices have soared, excluding local families and potential workers at Hill Farmstead, Jasper Hill Farm and other businesses.

The Canadians’ disenchantment added to all these problems for Jasper Hill Farm, a particularly hard blow. This small cheese factory, founded 22 years ago by two brothers, was booming on the Canadian market when the rupture between the two countries stopped its growth, explains Mateo Kehler, co-founder and master cheesemaker.

It had taken a decade to find access to the Canadian market, where supply is highly regulated, but perseverance was starting to pay off, Mr. Kehler said. The cheese factory was heading towards an annual turnover of US$500,000 and the two brothers hoped to reach seven figures soon. The deterioration of US-Canada relations derailed everything.

It looks like a few Canadians are coming back. On a weekday in December, bartenders at Hill Farmstead’s bar estimated that a third of the customers were Canadian.

Mr. Montgomery says he understands why many others are staying home.

“We clearly tell them that we support their decisions, from a philosophical point of view. And we tell them we hope to see them again when they feel ready to come back. »

This article was published in the New York Times.

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