Trump’s Trade War With Canada Is Making Even Sprinkle Makers Nervous

Rosie Alyea, the chief sprinkle officer at Sweetapolita in Toronto, has had a bitter year.

First, the United States blocked cheap imports from entering the country duty-free, which made a mess of her sales to American customers.

“That was extremely disruptive,” she said.

Then last month, after trade talks between the United States and Canada collapsed, the Trump administration imposed punishing new tariffs on a wide and seemingly arbitrary list of items that included wine, dairy products and hockey sticks. Among them were several ingredients in Ms. Alyea’s sprinkles, like cellulose gum and glucose.

Some 2,500 miles away from Sweetapolita’s headquarters, in Santa Cruz, Calif., Zach Davis suddenly wondered: “Are sprinkles on the list?”

The question was not a trifling one. Mr. Davis is an owner of the Penny Ice Creamery, which buys thousands of dollars’ worth of Sweetapolita’s medleys of colorful sprinkles every year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/business/economy/canada-tariffs-sprinkles.html