Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs across a raft of US sectors, Carney says

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday that starting on September 8 Canada would impose tariffs on imports from the US across a raft of sectors in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s new 50% tariffs that came into effect from midnight.

After days of intense negotiations, the two countries failed to reach a trade deal late on Friday, worsening an already delicate relationship between the two long-term trade partners and allies and complicating the future of a highly successful continental free trade pact called the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.

Trump’s new tariffs hit a slew of sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods, hockey equipment and cover some $20bn of Canadian exports south of the border.

These duties do not give exemption to Canadian products under the USMCA, which have shielded most of Canadian exports to the US in the past 18 months.

“Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses,” Carney said at a news conference.

These retaliatory tariffs will hit sectors such as steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics and will also include products currently subject to the unjustified section 232 and 338 tariffs, Carney said in a spirited speech from the parliament building in Ottawa.

“We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked,” Carney said.