It turns out that Donald Trump’s U.S.-Canada trade war will soon involve the weaponization of something dear to all Americans. Something that’s the thin white line between chaos and civilization. Something that’s the only thing that proves its value the second it’s gone.
Toilet paper.
Toilet paper prices will soon be going up, bigtime.
Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.
After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September.
Paper products are among the hardest-hit sectors, with Canada threatening to put tariffs of between 25% and 50% on “toilet paper or face tissue stock” from 8 September in retaliation for a 50% hike from Washington DC.
Though American toilet paper and tissues are often made domestically, they heavily rely on lumber-rich Canada for raw materials. Procter & Gamble, the owner of Charmin toilet paper, said last year that it would have to increase prices amid tariffs that were in place at the time.
The US imported $328m worth of toilet paper from Canada in 2024, according to the World Bank, making it by far the largest exporter of the product to the US. Retailers including Costco source much of their paper products from the country.
The US accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption despite having only 4% of the world’s population. The average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper per year, making them No 1 for No 2s globally, just ahead of Germans, each using an average of 134 rolls annually.
It may soon seem like the bad, old days of Covid 19 or 1973.
The COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t the first time people emptied store shelves of toilet paper. In 1973 Americans created a toilet paper shortage after Tonight Show how Johnny Carson joked that there might be a toilet paper shortage. Although there was no widespread crisis at the time, millions of viewers rushed out to buy extra rolls, creating the very shortage they feared. During the COVID pandemic in 2020, panic buying stay-at-home orders, and a sudden shift from office to public restroom use to home use overwhelmed retailers, leaving shelves bare despite manufacturers continuing to produce large amounts of toilet paper.
History suggests that toilet paper shortages are often driven less by a lack of production than by psychology: once people believe supplies might run out, they stockpile, and the fear creates the shortage.
Some newspaper reports during COVID suggested some people resorted to using newsapers.
Now newspapers are dying and many are on-line and phones, laptops and PCs won’t do as replacements.
If toilet paper prices rise, the impact will be felt from Los Angeles, CA to Flushing, NY.
The weaponization of toilet paper may make Americans feel wiped out.
Because with toilet paper, you can’t just wait until things have bottomed out.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.