The new 50 percent tariffs would exclude energy products, potash, fish and critical minerals, but they would include goods that had previously been protected from import taxes by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. That 2020 trade pact was not renewed by the US, triggering a new set of negotiations that could run until 2036.<\/p>\n
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The White House said in a fact sheet that the tariffs would go into effect in 30 days, meaning there is time for negotiations as Trump has not always followed through on his announced tax hikes on imports.<\/p>\n
Still, the tariffs could escalate into a wider trade war as Canada seeks to defend its economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf these tariffs proceed, Canada should respond tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar,\u201d Ontario Premier Doug Ford posted on social media.<\/p>\n
The tariffs also pose a threat to other US trading partners, not just Canada, and inject \u201cmassive uncertainty\u201d into the global economy, said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe crossed the Rubicon,\u201d Lincicome said. \u201cThe invocation of 338 is the nuclear option for Trump tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new tariffs carry serious political and economic risks for Trump ahead of the November midterm elections for control of Congress. His \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs last year in April provoked a financial market meltdown over concerns about inflation and a recession, prompting him to walk back the rates for a period of negotiation.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court ruled this February that Trump had lacked the legal authority to impose the tariffs by declaring an economic emergency, causing the administration to find alternative ways to raise import taxes based on a series of legal authorities.<\/p>\n
Tariffs are taxes on imports, which companies can then pass along to consumers in the form of higher prices. The president maintains that the costs created by tariffs will cause manufacturing to relocate to the US, though there is little evidence of that in the economic data.<\/p>\n
The latest import taxes could worsen Trump\u2019s weak ratings on the economy. He promised voters when running for the presidency that he would bring prices down, but the annual inflation rate has risen since he became president because the tariffs and the war in Iran are pushing up oil prices.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration official said the president had also requested that his aides look into additional tariffs on Canada because its wildfires hurt air quality in the US. He had publicly threatened to do so in social media posts.<\/p>\n
At the World Cup final on Sunday, Trump watched the game with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has openly challenged the US president and has sought to expand Canada\u2019s trade relations with other nations. The Trump administration official said their time together at the game was not a working visit to discuss trade and tariffs.<\/p>\n
Trump claims in the proclamations that Canada discriminates against American autos, alcohol and cheese relative to other nations, but his argument rests in large part on retaliatory actions taken by Canada after the US president imposed tariffs on Canada under the pretext that it should do more to stop fentanyl smuggling.<\/p>\n
Trump noted in his autos proclamation that Canada maintained, starting in April 2025, a 25 percent tariff on the imports of US motor vehicles that did not qualify for preferential treatment under the USMCA.<\/p>\n
The White House said regarding alcohol that all but two Canadian provinces and territories halted the purchase and retailing of American alcoholic beverages beginning last year, which was also a response to Trump\u2019s tariffs and taunts of making Canada the 51st state.<\/p>\n
But Trump has long objected to Canada\u2019s treatment of US cheese, saying in his proclamation that Canada discriminates against the US compared to Europe on dairy products.<\/p>\n
Trump and Carney have had a frosty relationship, with Carney, a former central banker, winning the premiership last year by promising to stand up for Canada.<\/p>\n
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Carney called out Trump \u2014 without naming him \u2014 by saying that the \u201cmost powerful\u201d countries are using the economy to coerce less powerful nations.<\/p>\n
Trump responded at the time by saying: \u201cCanada lives because of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Jim Morris contributed from Vancouver, British Columbia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new 50 percent tariffs would exclude energy products, potash, fish and critical minerals, but they would include…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[525,17,9276,592,2056,434,113,3942,5996,218],"class_list":["post-137204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-discrimination","tag-general-news","tag-inflation","tag-international-trade","tag-politics","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}