How a Small Violin Part Highlights Bigger Problems for the Global Economy
Posted on: Apr 02, 2025 19:45 IST | Posted by: Nytimes
A family business in Ottawa that makes special shoulder rests for violins is imperiled by both Trump’s tariffs on Canada and potential Canadian retaliation.
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As the Trump administration advances a trade war with global consequences, the Kun Shoulder Rest factory in the Canadian capital does not immediately stand out as the front line.
A family-owned business that operates out of a labyrinthine Victorian home in downtown Ottawa, Kun makes ergonomic shoulder rests used by violinists from New York to Berlin.
“We’re operating in this rarefied world of mostly orchestral stringed instruments,” said Juliana Farha, 58, the company’s director. “If you play the violin, you know about it. And if you don’t, it’s just some weird widget that you’ve never heard of.”
Yet that widget is among the countless products facing the prospect of tariffs crafted by the Trump administration in the name of boosting American industrial fortunes. Even before any tariffs take effect, company managers are scrambling to configure backup plans. The disruption highlights the interconnected effects of trade conflicts, a primary source of worry about the global economy.
The 25 percent tariffs that President Trump has threatened to impose on Canadian imports imperils Kun’s sales in the United States, the destination for more than a third of its products. The retaliatory levies the Canadian government might impose this week risk increasing the costs for one of its primary ingredients, a specialty nylon made by an American company.
“We would be hit with a double whammy,” Ms. Farha said.
What is hardest for her to accept is who stands to benefit from the upheaval. Not an American brand that might gain a bigger share of the market, but rather Chinese companies that produce crude imitations of Kun’s products, often at half the price. Her lone American competitor makes its products in Taiwan.
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