The White House says the tariffs will go into effect in 30 days, meaning there is time for negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said his nation would match the US tariffs dollar for dollar, escalating the trade conflict and calling into the question the future of a North American trade pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico that is crucial to industry in all three countries.<\/p>\n
Canada sought concessions on tariffs on steel, aluminium, autos and lumber that the United States was unwilling to provide.<\/p>\n
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement, early Saturday local time:<\/p>\n
“Tonight, Canada declined to finalise the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Despite the US offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk-backs of other commitments by Canada have up-ended the careful balance reached in the past days,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney responded:<\/p>\n
“Last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”<\/p>\n
He said his government would announce additional support for Canadian workers and businesses in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Mr Greer said the US offer was “forward-looking” and included “a historic economic and national security partnership”.<\/p>\n
No further talks have been planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The breakdown in negotiations marked a sharp reversal from two days earlier, when officials from the two countries sounded as if they were headed toward a compromise.<\/p>\n
Typically cooperative alliance goes sour<\/p>\n
The political impact will likely be even bigger than the economic fallout. The countries sold each other $US880 billion worth of goods and services last year.<\/p>\n
The tariffs were initially supposed to kick in at 12:01am on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Donald Trump said on Friday that he expected the US to strike a trade deal with Canada. (AP: Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n
Mr Trump extended the deadline for three days to allow talks to continue, but the two countries still could not reach an agreement in time.<\/p>\n
The two nations have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other over sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and US access to Canada’s protected dairy market.<\/p>\n
Somehow, they still managed to remain friends, allies and trading partners.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump’s approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He has hit Canadian goods with tariffs, in a push to bring manufacturing back to the United States, and has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.<\/p>\n
Canadians and Americans are frustrated<\/p>\n
The Canadian public is fed up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A petition to expel the US ambassador, a Trump ally, has collected nearly 248,000 signatures since July 21. It accuses Ambassador Pete Hoekstra of having “normalised” Mr Trump’s talk of annexing Canada, among other things.<\/p>\n
The two countries had good reasons to find a compromise.<\/p>\n
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Donald Trump’s import taxes will apply to about 5 per cent of what Canada ships to the US every year. (AP: Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n
Nearly 72 per cent of Canada’s goods exports last year went to the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the Trump administration might be wary of imposing a hefty new tariff, paid by US importers who try to pass along the cost to consumers via higher prices, ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
American voters are already frustrated with the high cost of living.<\/p>\n
“Canada likely wanted further sector-specific relief than the US was willing to offer, or Canada’s concessions did not go far enough,” said Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former US trade official.\u00a0<\/p>\n