CANADA will impose tariffs on some US goods in retaliation for 50 per cent levies ordered by President Donald Trump on Canadian products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday, after trade talks collapsed between the two neighbours.
The “dollar for dollar” tariffs on imports of US steel, electronics and other products, to take effect on September 8, mark a further worsening of relations between the longtime allies and major trading partners.
The two countries failed to reach a trade deal late on Friday, with each side blaming the other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations. The breakdown complicates the future of a US-Mexico-Canada free-trade pact.
Trump’s new tariffs hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, covering some $20 billion of Canadian exports to the US.
These duties do not exempt Canadian products under the three-nation trade deal, which has shielded most Canadian exports to the US in the last 18 months.
“Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses,” Carney told a press conference.
“You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,” Carney said when asked a question about whether Canada was engaged in a trade war.
Carney is one of the few global leaders to retaliate against US tariffs and has pledged to forge new trade and military alliances, despite Canada’s dependence on the US for nearly 70pc of its exports.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer called the breakdown “a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States,” saying no new talks were planned with Canada.
“We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” Greer told Fox News. “They’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.”
The White House, the US commerce secretary’s office and the US trade representative’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Canada will impose tariffs on US steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, along with some products the US previously targeted in Canada, Carney said from Ottawa’s Parliament building. The government will release details on its response in the coming days, he said.
“We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked,” Carney said.
Trump had expressed hope that a deal with Canada could happen on Friday.
But Carney said the US administration’s last-minute demands halted progress.
“In recent days, the US proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits to Canada, calling into question the reliability of any deal,” he said, adding these demands included curtailing Canada’s ability to forge new trade deals.
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