Countertariffs

Canada hits back with countertariffs on American goods

The tariffs range from 15 to 50 percent and target an array of American exports to Canada.

By Zi-Ann Lum

Canada is retaliating against the Trump administration with counter-tariffs targeting more than 700 products, putting its hardest squeeze on American steel and aluminum.

The dollar-for-dollar measures announced Tuesday hit back at the new 50 percent tariffs the United States imposed on Canadian imports after negotiations collapsed last week between the two countries, intensifying a prolonged North American trade war that risks hollowing the region’s integrated economies.

It’s not the Canadian government’s objective to raise revenues on tariffed items, one senior government official told reporters in a briefing Tuesday. The point is to protect Canadian companies’ domestic market share hit by new U.S. tariffs, said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the new retaliatory measures.

The tariffs include 15, 25 and 50 percent levies and target an array of American exports to Canada that include steel and aluminum products, fishing rods, gym equipment, seafood, appliances and clothing. They will come into effect on Sept. 8.

Ottawa is responding to a new 50 percent tariff on roughly $20 billion in Canadian imports the U.S. imposed last week after negotiators failed to finalize a deal to avoid the new duties.

Both American and Canadian officials accused each other of making last-minute requests that ultimately killed the deal. U.S. officials claimed Canada sneaked in asks for lower tariffs on heavy trucks. Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed to a power struggle between U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for changing the terms of a deal that went from agreeable to no longer recognizable in 72 hours.

Those tariffs, invoked for the first time under Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, sought to punish Canada for its dairy retail policies, retaliatory auto tariffs to Section 232 duties and provincial bans on the sale of American booze — and to force a push past an impasse in bilateral U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement review talks.

Canada is also introducing C$7.5 billion in new funding for domestic support programs to cushion the blow of the new tariffs for small and medium-sized Canadian companies, on top of the nearly C$25 billion Ottawa has already earmarked in the last 18 months for affected workers.