By Promit Mukherjee and Bhargav Acharya <\/p>\n
OTTAWA, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday that Canada would impose tariffs starting September 8 on imports of U.S. steel, electronics and other products in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs that took effect at midnight. <\/p>\n
After days of intense negotiations, the two \u200ccountries did not reach a trade deal late Friday, worsening a delicate relationship between the longtime trade partners and allies and complicating the future of the continental \u200cfree trade pact known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. <\/p>\n
Trump’s new tariffs hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, and cover some $20 billion of Canadian exports to the U.S. These duties do not \u200bexempt Canadian products under the USMCA, which has shielded most Canadian exports to the U.S. in the last 18 months. <\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
Carney is one of the few global leaders to retaliate against U.S. tariffs and has pledged to forge new trade and military alliances, despite Canada’s dependence on the United States for nearly \u200c70% of its exports. <\/p>\n
Canada will impose tariffs on U.S. steel, dairy, \u2060appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, along with some products the U.S. 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. <\/p>\n
“We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give \u2060what they have asked,” Carney said. <\/p>\n
Trump had expressed hope that a deal with Canada could happen on Friday. <\/p>\n
NEW U.S. TERMS DERAILED DEAL: CARNEY <\/p>\n
But Carney said the U.S. administration’s last-minute demands halted progress. <\/p>\n
“In recent days, the U.S. 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 \u200bnew \u200btrade deals. <\/p>\n
Carney said Canada would announce support measures next week for industries hit by the new U.S. duties, \u200badding these measures could last years. <\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told \u200cFox News on Saturday that no new talks are planned with Canada. <\/p>\n
“We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” Greer said. “They’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.” <\/p>\n
The White House, the U.S. commerce secretary’s office and the U.S. trade representative’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comments. <\/p>\n
The new U.S. tariffs cover around 5% of Canada’s exports to the U.S. They could expose some vulnerable industries such as softwood lumber and wine to severe damage and lead to job losses and business closures, trade experts have said. <\/p>\n
“We will be mobilizing our network of businesses in all regions and all sectors to brace for impact and make the best of a bad situation,” \u200csaid Candace Laing, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. <\/p>\n
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the most \u200bvocal opponents of U.S. tariffs, supported Carney’s decision to retaliate. <\/p>\n
“I’m glad he didn’t sign that deal because it was \u200ba bad deal. It was a bad deal for Ontario. It was a \u200bbad deal for the auto sector, the steel sector, and manufacturing sector,” Ford told reporters on Saturday. <\/p>\n
STICKING POINTS <\/p>\n
One of the main sticking points was the \u200ctreatment of larger vehicles. <\/p>\n
Three sources said Canada wanted favorable tariff terms proposed \u200bfor light-duty vehicles to extend to medium- and \u200bheavy-duty trucks, something the U.S. resisted. Carney said the U.S. position would have excluded Canadian-made models, including Ford’s F-350, F-450 and F-550 trucks and General Motors’ Silverado, making Canadian production less competitive. <\/p>\n
There were also U.S. proposals that affected Canadian culture, language and sovereignty, Carney said, without elaborating. <\/p>\n
Carney was elected last year on a promise to be \u200ba tough negotiator with Trump, and remains broadly popular. Polls show \u200cmost Canadians oppose making any concessions to the U.S. <\/p>\n
“Canadians must stand united to defend our country against these unfair attacks on our jobs and businesses,” Pierre Poilievre, \u200bthe leader of the official opposition Conservative Party, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, Chibuike Oguh, Bhargav Acharya and David Shepardson. Additional reporting by \u200bSusan Heavey and Marianna Parraga. Editing by Ross Colvin, Caroline Stauffer, Rod Nickel and Alistair Bell) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Promit Mukherjee and Bhargav Acharya OTTAWA, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[17,11340,7143,8279,111,202,400],"class_list":["post-179063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-canada","tag-canadian-exports","tag-canadian-products","tag-dairy-products","tag-mark-carney","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-tariffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179063","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=179063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}