by Bryan Marovich, for the Newport Dispatch
NEWPORT –– Mayor Rick Ufford-Chase told a national television audience over the weekend that the trade war between the United States and Canada has cut into Newport’s retail and restaurant business, complicated life for local manufacturers and strained friendships across a border the city has leaned on for generations.
Ufford-Chase appeared on CNN in a segment about northern border towns whose economies depend on Canadian visitors and suppliers. He described the Northeast Kingdom as a place that is “absolutely incredibly beautiful, also economically struggling,” and said the damage from the tariff fight is landing on a community already working to revive its Main Street.
“We see this as kind of an unforced error,” the mayor said. “But this one is entirely, thoroughly unnecessary.”
Citing a state study, Ufford-Chase said Canadian visitors spent nearly 50% less in July 2025, after the first round of tariff threats, than they had in July 2024. By July of this year, he said, the decline had narrowed to just under 40% compared with 2024. More recently, he said, the message from many Canadians has been simpler: They are not coming.
The mayor said the natural food store that anchors Main Street — the building he was speaking from — has seen business drop roughly 30% to 35%.
“Anybody who knows retail knows that doesn’t work,” he said.
Asked how much of the local economy is tied to Canada, Ufford-Chase said he could not put a figure on it but that retail and restaurants are “clearly dependent on those relationships.”
He also pointed to a downtown furniture manufacturer, owned by a friend and his wife, that sources about 30% to 35% of its materials from Quebec. He did not name the business. Buying across the border is cheaper and faster because of the proximity, he said, and keeps the finished product less expensive for American consumers.
Newport sits at the southern end of Lake Memphremagog, which Ufford-Chase said runs 27 miles, with 20 of those miles in Quebec. The Quebec line is about four miles from the city, he said. Families are spread across the border, and the loss of casual travel has made those connections harder to maintain.
The mayor said residents are not angry with Canada over its retaliatory tariffs, which CNN put at $20 billion in goods.
“No one here is upset with them for retaliating,” he said. “In fact, I think there’s a pretty grudging respect for the response from the Canadian government.”
He added that the frustration is not a partisan matter locally. While Vermont votes reliably Democratic in national politics, he noted, the region around Newport is heavily Republican.
“Across the board, folks are bewildered by why in the world this would be considered a good move,” he said.
The segment also touched on Derby Line, the border village north of Newport, where the CNN correspondent said residents on both sides voiced less anger about the tariffs themselves than uncertainty about what comes next.
Ufford-Chase was elected mayor in March 2025. Downtown redevelopment has been his central priority since taking office.