50 percent tariff on Canada..........

Trump announces 50 percent tariff on Canadian vehicles, steel after trade talks collapse

The duties would not go into effect until January, leaving the door open to more negotiations.

By Jalen Beckford and Oliver Ward

President Donald Trump on Monday announced the U.S. will impose a 50 percent tariff on Canadian vehicles, steel and other items next year, after trade talks between the two countries collapsed last week.

“On January First, 2027, Tariffs on all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and Steel, will be increased to 50" percent, he wrote on Truth Social.

“Build in the U.S. and there are ZERO TARIFFS. Canada will be treated like a State no longer!” the president wrote.

The four-month grace period is likely aimed at triggering a new round of talks, but at this point, both governments are digging in.

A 50 percent U.S. tariff on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports went into effect Saturday morning after Washington and Ottawa failed to reach a trade deal to lower tariffs and other trade barriers.

In the aftermath, both countries blamed the other for the breakdown, saying they made last-minute demands and changes that tanked the deal.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would retaliate dollar-for-dollar for the U.S. new tariffs that went into effect, with duties on American steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics set to kick in Sept. 8.

Speaking in Quebec on Monday, Carney said he wasn’t surprised by Trump’s escalation, but warned the U.S. president to consider the economic impacts of a trade conflict on American workers, particularly in the automobile sector — a key sticking point in last week’s negotiations.

“What message does that send to the workers in Michigan and Ohio and Kentucky and Alabama, who rely on Canadian demand?” he said, pointing out that Canada is largest buyer of U.S. automobiles. But Carney also left the door open to returning to the negotiating table, if the U.S. returns “with the right attitude.”

Tempers, however, were flaring on Monday.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised in an interview with a local radio station in Ottawa “to throw everything in the kitchen sink at” at the Trump administration, calling the U.S. president “arrogant,” “cocky” and a “bully.”

Trump can “kiss my a--,” Ford added.

That prompted a follow-up post from the president on Truth Social Monday afternoon, in which he dismissed Ford as “less charismatic, intelligent and overall unimpressive” compared to his late brother Rob Ford — who served as Toronto mayor from 2010 to 2014.

“Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” Trump wrote.

Ford wasn’t the only Canadian premier to call for resolve in the face of higher U.S. tariffs. British Columbia Premier David Eby also denounced the duties, saying in an interview Monday on CNN News Central that “Canada has to hit back” and that the policies are “going to hurt” Americans.

Eby also said that Canada hopes other countries “follow along” in pushing back on Trump.

On the other side of the border, Trump’s intensifying trade war with Canada drew criticism from at least one member of his own party.

GOP Sen. Susan Collins — who’s in the middle of a high-stakes Senate race in Maine — called the president’s decision to impose the new tariffs “a mistake,” saying she met recently with the Canadian ambassador and urged him to focus on Ottawa’s barriers to U.S. dairy products.

“We produce a lot of meat, our blueberries, our potatoes, our lobster, our lumber, that is processed across the border,” Collins told reporters Monday at an annual parade in her home state. “If it comes back with a huge tariff on it, perhaps as much as 50 percent, that increases the cost of heating, building homes, and merchants eating our best-known products.”

In a social media post over the weekend, the veteran Republican lawmaker urged “both sides to return to the negotiating table,” noting the “on-again/off-again” talks between the two North American neighbors lead to “higher costs, risk, and uncertainty for Maine businesses.”