{"id":180667,"date":"2026-08-24T13:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/180667\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:35:09","slug":"canada-tariffs-massachusetts-will-feel-effect-from-levy-on-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/180667\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada tariffs: Massachusetts will feel effect from levy on trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCanada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!\u201d Trump said in a social media post<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Might the levies also have something to do with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s refusal to suck up to Trump? Don\u2019t answer; that was a rhetorical question. <\/p>\n

Get Trendlines<\/p>\n

A business newsletter from Globe Columnist Larry Edelman covering the trends shaping business and the economy in Boston and beyond.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s preoccupation with Canada \u2014 he says it should be the 51st state<\/a> \u2014 would be laughable if the country weren\u2019t Massachusetts\u2019s and New England\u2019s largest trading partner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, this round of tariffs is relatively small and energy, the state\u2019s largest Canadian import, is exempt. Trump is especially sensitive to gasoline prices after the spike<\/a> caused by his unsuccessful war against Iran. <\/p>\n

But many Canadian agricultural goods and lumber products are affected. And, perhaps more important than the immediate financial impact, the deteriorating relationship between the two countries doesn\u2019t bode well for our region\u2019s economy and longstanding ties to Canada. <\/p>\n

The latest: The administration imposed the new duties \u2014 covering about 5 percent of Canada\u2019s US exports \u2014 after trade negotiations collapsed late Friday.<\/p>\n

The administration said it was acting in response to what it called Canada\u2019s discriminatory treatment of US exports of dairy, alcoholic beverages, and motor vehicles.<\/p>\n

The hodgepodge list<\/a> of hundreds of affected imports includes those sectors, as well as textiles and clothing. But many, um, peculiar items have also been targeted: tongue depressors, molasses, and horsehair and horsehair waste, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

Step back: The move comes on top of other current tariffs against Canada.<\/p>\n

The country, like nearly every US trading partner, is subject to a 10 percent surcharge<\/a> on exports to America, with the exception of products covered under the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact.<\/p>\n

Trump, citing national security concerns, also imposed separate duties on steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve always had the best [trade] deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn\u2019t want that,\u201d Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, said<\/a>, referring to the failed negotiations with Canada.<\/p>\n

Carney vowed to retaliate<\/a> \u201cdollar for dollar\u201d starting Sept. 8. <\/p>\n

The local angle: Canada accounted for about a quarter of Massachusetts\u2019 $43 billion of goods imports<\/a> last year, according to US Census Bureau data. <\/p>\n

As noted, energy, which accounts for 36 percent of Massachusetts\u2019 Canadian imports, is not on the tariff list.<\/p>\n

But other top import categories are, including agricultural goods (27 percent) and forest products (9 percent). Higher prices for some food and lumber are possible.<\/p>\n

Carney said Canada\u2019s retaliatory tariffs would focus on sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics. <\/p>\n

That might hurt some of Massachusetts\u2019 larger exports to Canada: optical, medical, and precision instruments; computers; plastics; pharmaceuticals; aircraft and parts; and paper and paperboard. About 8 percent of the state\u2019s $33.8 billion in product exports go to Canada. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s next: Trump is still miffed that eight Canadian provinces banned US alcohol imports in 2025 after he upped the volume on his \u201c51st state\u201d nonsense and imposed tariffs in violation of the free trade agreement between the two countries and Mexico.<\/p>\n

Canadians, whose attitudes toward the administration have only hardened since then, aren\u2019t going to back down \u2014 even if the United States buys nearly three-quarters of their exports<\/a> and is the source of nearly half their imports. They figure Trump and his tariff fixation will be history in two years. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot accept what they\u2019ve offered, and we will not give what they\u2019ve asked,\u201d Carney said on Saturday. \u201cOur goal has always been to get the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or any time frame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although its economy is less than one-10th the size of the United States\u2019, Canada has some leverage in this trade fight. It is the largest foreign supplier of energy to America and the second-largest source of direct foreign investment.<\/p>\n

Final thought: Stymied by Iran in the Persian Gulf, he\u2019s desperate for a win on trade<\/a>. <\/p>\n

While Canada and the United States have deep economic and cultural ties, Trump doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve recognized from the start that America has changed,\u201d Carney said. \u201cWe recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, Canada, with an ally like Trump, who needs enemies?<\/p>\n

Larry Edelman can be reached at larry.edelman@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCanada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!\u201d Trump said in a social media post…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,8083,57252,235,1887,229,33889,31547,4642,4408,113,45291,8746,400,401,5994,3211],"class_list":["post-180667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-congress","tag-democrat","tag-economy","tag-exports","tag-government","tag-house","tag-imports","tag-manufacturing","tag-north-america","tag-politics","tag-republican","tag-senate","tag-tariffs","tag-trade","tag-trump-administration","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180667","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=180667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}