{"id":183419,"date":"2026-08-26T03:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/183419\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:14:09","slug":"canada-slaps-retaliatory-tariffs-on-us-goods-worth-us20-billion-as-trade-war-intensifies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/183419\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada slaps retaliatory tariffs on US goods worth $US20 billion as trade war intensifies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa, Canada
Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada hit back on Tuesday with retaliatory tariffs on about $US20 billion worth of US annual imports and rolled out aid for businesses and workers, matching Washington\u2019s latest duties dollar-for-dollar.<\/p>\n

The counter-tariffs on US goods take effect on 8th September and impose duties of 15 per cent, 25 per cent and 50 per cent across around 700 products imported from south of the border, a government statement said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A crane operator lifts a shipping container at the Port of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 14th April, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters\/Carlos Osorio<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump\u2019s new 50 per cent tariffs on $US20 billion of Canadian imports took effect on Saturday after talks between the two countries collapsed.<\/p>\n

The new tit-for-tat tariffs mark a new low in relations between the longtime allies, and Trump earlier on Tuesday threatened to rename Lake Ontario, which straddles both countries, \u201cLake America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dollar-for-dollar, rate for rate counter-tariffs as well as a multi-billion dollar support package will protect workers, farmers, families, and businesses,\u201d Canada\u2019s Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne said.<\/p>\n

The White House and the US Trade Representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Canada levied the 50 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminium, furniture and clothing, set the 25 per cent tariffs on cheese, appliances and some seafood, and placed the 15 per cent tariffs on electronics and tools, a Canadian government official told reporters.<\/p>\n

LAKE AMERICA? TRUMP MULLS RENAMING LAKE ONTARIO, EXPRESSES LOVE FOR FRENCH CANADIANS AMID TRADE WAR<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to \u201cLake America\u201d and denied that a rift over French language requirements contributed to a breakdown in trade talks between the US and Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don\u2019t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,\u201d Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Canada geese swim in Lake Ontario near Centre Island, during the FIFA World Cup in Toronto, Canada, on 24th June, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Bhargav Acharya\/File photo<\/p>\n

One of the five Great Lakes of North America, Lake Ontario borders both the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York.<\/p>\n

Asked about Trump\u2019s comment, Canada\u2019s minister responsible for US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, said Canada would not respond to social media posts by the US administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve decided as a Federal Government months ago not to respond to sort of the daily social media posts of either the president or his cabinet secretaries,\u201d LeBlanc said in an interview on CNBC.<\/p>\n

Such a move is unlikely to have any practical impact on resolving the trade war started by the US President Trump \u2013 who has long cast himself as a master dealmaker \u2013 is also struggling to end the US-Israeli war on Iran that he launched earlier this year, which has driven up global energy prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a lot of rhetoric because we\u2019re the number one customer to 17 states, number two to 12 others. Ontario alone, if Ontario was just standalone, would be the third-largest trading partner in the world,\u201d Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a CNN interview.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s threat to rename Lake Ontario comes after he issued an executive order in January 2025 to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.<\/p>\n

Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed last week with each side blaming the other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations.<\/p>\n

In a separate post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said disagreement over Canada\u2019s French-language requirements did not contribute to the collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec. I love French Canadians!\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a press conference on Monday that the trade deal faltered after US. negotiators proposed changes that put Canada\u2019s French-language rules at risk.<\/p>\n

The US has demanded that Canada roll back new legal requirements for streaming services providers to prioritise French language content for Quebec. The US Trade Representative had listed the requirements as a trade barrier in its 2026 National Trade Estimate report.<\/p>\n

English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equal status, rights and privileges under its Constitution.<\/p>\n

In Quebec, where 80 per cent of the population speaks French, Trump is more disliked than anywhere else in Canada, polling data shows.<\/p>\n

According to August data from the pollster Angus Reid, only 10 per cent of people from Quebec have a favourable view of Trump and even a deal to lower tariffs would be unlikely to reverse public opinion.<\/p>\n

\u2013 BHARGAV ACHARYA and KATHARINE JACKSON; additional reporting by DAVID LAWDER AND CAROLINE STAUFFER, Washington DC, US\/Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s new tariffs are relatively narrow, affecting roughly five per cent of Canada\u2019s exports to the United States. But trade analysts say they could have severe, concentrated effects on some sectors that are already struggling like wood products, particularly kitchen cabinet makers.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s retaliatory tariffs, calculated using 2024 trade figures, cover goods accounting for nearly 4.5 per cent of Canada\u2019s imports from the United States.<\/p>\n

Industry Minister Melanie Joly said the counter-tariffs were primarily aimed at protecting Canadian businesses but were also aimed at applying political pressure before Americans vote in the 3rd November midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that the competitors don\u2019t have access to the Canadian market in a better way than their own\u2026 products, and that\u2019s why the retailers need to show that from Canada,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond, we\u2019re also targeting products that will target states in the US and so we\u2019re being wise and strategic to put political pressure, and that\u2019s why we think it\u2019s the right thing to do right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian tariffs will also cover some prepared foods, perfumes and toiletries, plastics, lumber, wood pulp and paper products, carpets and clothing.<\/p>\n

The list also targets industrial goods including iron and steel, aluminum, hand tools and other metal products, machinery and electrical equipment, as well as rail engines, motorcycles, furniture and gaming equipment, government documents showed.<\/p>\n

Canada also unveiled a $C7.5 billion package of measures featuring support for small and medium-sized businesses, a stream for funding cash flow of companies, and support for workers at risk due to the new tariffs. The Business Development Bank of Canada, a federal lender, will provide part of the support to affected businesses, offering interest-free loans of between $C2.5 million and $C5 million.<\/p>\n

Joly said companies would not be required to make repayments for 36 months, a period that would run through the end of the Trump administration\u2019s term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa, CanadaReuters Canada hit back on Tuesday with retaliatory tariffs on about $US20 billion worth of US annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,33644,162,10448,13009,111,734,6882,7195],"class_list":["post-183419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-canadian-tariffs","tag-donald-trump","tag-francois-philippe-champagne","tag-lake-ontario","tag-mark-carney","tag-us","tag-us-tariffs","tag-us-canada-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183419","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=183419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}