‘Let’s keep us alive’: Nova Scotia clothing brand struggles amid U.S. trade dispute

Posted November 6, 2026 5:53 pm

2 min read

2:26 Trade tensions with U.S. force Nova Scotia clothing company to pivot

A Halifax-area clothing brand is feeling the impact of the ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States and is being forced to make changes to how it does business.

Fairechild creates outerwear from sustainable fabric made of recycled plastic bottles and produced by a German company. The small-batch operation has all its garments handcrafted at its Dartmouth, N.S., studio.

The company’s CEO, Tabitha Osler, estimates about half of Fairechild’s customer base is in the U.S.

But she says the cost of doing business with the U.S. has become too high and the company was recently hit with thousands of dollars in unexpected brokerage charges.

“We actually had to stop shipping to the States in August because we had been shipping to them using the rules that we felt were eligible on our type of product. And then just receiving all of these chargebacks of brokerage to us, probably $10,000 at least in the span of about two to three months, which we just had to absorb,” she said.

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“We’ve had a pause (shipping to the United States) and we’ve been trying to figure out a way to collect duties more clearly, but also getting preferential origin for our product. So it’s been very complex, much more complex than it had been previously.”

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She adds the company used to ship items through the U.S. to export elsewhere, which made “shipping costs much more manageable.” But the decision not to ship to the U.S. means sending products to Europe has now become more expensive.

“It’s just been a domino effect. And not something anyone can really do anything about, but you just start to question when it will end and how we’ll recover,” she said.

The clothing brand has also slowed down production and is relying on a federal government program to help navigate the downturn.

Osler says the company is now looking for Canadian suppliers and trying to expand its customer base in Canada and other markets.

Her experience isn’t isolated. The Canadian Apparel Federation says the current trade climate is eroding businesses’ ability to manufacture here.

“They’ll make it in China, they’ll make it in Portugal. They’ll make it in Italy, anywhere, because all those countries have much lower duties for many goods. This is absurd,” said Bob Kirke, executive director of the federation.

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And Osler says she worries businesses like hers are getting closer to extinction.

“I feel like a dinosaur in the industry, like the last remaining dinosaur in Canada just marching along manufacturing here,” she said.