Canada is about to hit the gas in its trade fight with Washington. Just after midnight Eastern on Tuesday, Ottawa’s new tariffs on roughly $20 billion in US goods are set to kick in, answering President Trump’s earlier move to slap steep duties on Canadian exports, including steel, aluminum, and autos, the New York Times reports. Polls suggest Canadians largely support Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to walk away from talks and respond in kind, even as business leaders brace for a potential escalation.
Some, like Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association of Canada, say they fully expect Trump to follow through on threats of more tariffs. People in the administration “are willing to hurt themselves, their own sectors and industries, in pursuit of their goal, however misguided I think it is,” Volpe tells the Times. “So they may escalate. I hope that we don’t end up in a tit-for-tat situation. We’re going to run out of runway.”
The new Canadian levies, ranging from 15% to 50%, are aimed at products that mirror the US targets—especially clothing and wood—and appear calibrated to hit states that backed Trump, though analysts question how much political heat that will generate. Canada trimmed some items, like certain fish products, to avoid boomeranging damage on its own industries. Trump has floated going further, including 50% tariffs on autos and auto parts without the usual USMCA exemptions—a scenario analysts say could cripple Canada’s auto sector, even as Ottawa publicly focuses on diversifying trade and expanding its domestic economy.
Carney’s office confirmed to the CBC on Monday that no calls between the prime minister and Trump are scheduled and Canadian negotiators aren’t planning to return to the table before the midnight deadline. Last week, Carney said talks can resume when “the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions.”
Trump, who suggested cutting off trade with Canada and numerous other countries on Friday, said in a Truth Social post Monday that Canada’s Bombardier would not be allowed to sell aircraft in the US unless it moved manufacturing south of the border, reports Reuters. Trump also posted an image depicting all of North America, including Canada, Mexico, and Greenland, as the United States of America.