Canadian Ice Cream Brand Ditches Most US Ingredients Amid Trump's Trade War, Vows Not to Raise Prices

Ottawa's counter-tariffs, not Washington's, are what raised the cost of Chapman's American supplies. (Credit: Gogerr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Chapman's Ice Cream has spent about 18 months reshaping how it buys. The Ontario company expects to have swapped out over 70 per cent of the American ingredients and parts it uses by the middle of 2027. It will not raise prices until March 2028. The work began when tariffs were announced in March 2025.

A tariff is collected from the importer at the border, not from the country selling the goods. So when Ottawa puts a duty on an affected US product, the Canadian buyer pays it. Chapman's buys a great many such items, from cones to almonds. Canadian counter-tariffs pushed up the cost of some of them.