In a trade war between two countries as integrated as Canada and the United States, it appears that nowhere is safe from price hikes, not even the washroom.With the latest round of tariffs implemented between the two countries, the price of toilet paper is expected to jump significantly, as paper tissues and toilet paper will be among some of the highest tariffed products in the trade war.US tariffs on Canadian paper tissue products currently sit at 50%, with Canada threatening to retaliate with tariffs of its own ranging from 25% to 50%.Although Canadians can likely find American toilet paper in their supermarkets, Americans will likely be the harder hit of the two nations due to Canada being the main source of the raw materials necessary in manufacturing paper tissues and other paper products.Canada's vast lumber resources are the main source for American paper manufacturers, and the tariffs have caused major companies, like the owner of Charmin toilet paper, Procter & Gamble, to state they will have to raise prices as a result..The statement from Procter and Gamble is from last year, the last time the tariff war flared up, but the point still stands that so long as the American administration keeps up its tariffs against Canadian pulp and paper products, the average American will be paying more every time they wipe.According to the World Bank, in 2024 the United States imported $328 million worth of toilet paper from Canada, making Canada by far the largest supplier of the product to the US.According to the Guardian, America is also far and away the largest consumer of toilet paper of any country in the world, accounting for 20% of the product's global market despite making up just 4% of the world's population.The average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper per year compared to just 83 to 85 for the average Canadian.With Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promising the new tariffs to be implemented September 8, it remains to be seen if the potential price hike is enough to bring down the average American's consumption of bog roll.
