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Canada's retaliatory tariffs, ranging from 15% to 50% and covering more than 700 US products — including furniture, fresh tuna and cotton T-shirts — will apply to nearly C$28 billion worth of American imports when they take effect on 8 September, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced in Ottawa on Tuesday. Champagne described the measures as "proportionate" and "strategic," and said Canada would also provide an additional C$7.5 billion in support programmes to help businesses and workers affected by US tariffs minimise job losses and stay afloat. Canadian trade representative Dominic LeBlanc said negotiations appeared close to a deal as late as Wednesday and Thursday of last week before collapsing in the final hours on Friday ahead of Trump's midnight deadline. Early estimates suggest the new US Section 338 tariffs, which took effect immediately after talks broke down, could cost Canada as many as 90,000 jobs.
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Canada is set to detail its full retaliatory response at a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, where ministers of finance, industry and labour are expected to announce additional measures to protect Canadian workers and businesses beyond the dollar-for-dollar countermeasures already outlined. Carney signalled Monday that Canada may shift away from strictly matching US tariffs and instead pursue more targeted retaliation, saying the goal of negotiations had always been to protect Canadian sovereignty and industry. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of Trump's most prominent critics in Canada, responded to the new tariff threats by telling the US president to "kiss my ass." Canada supplies roughly 60% of US crude oil imports and the vast majority of its natural gas and electricity imports, leverage Carney publicly acknowledged but has not yet included in the current countermeasures package.
The trade dispute between the United States and Canada escalated sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian automobiles, auto parts and steel from 25% to 50%, effective 1 January. The announcement came days after negotiations between the two countries collapsed late on Friday, when Canada walked away from talks moments before a US-imposed deadline that triggered 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump's latest threat unsurprising, accusing the president of seeking to destroy Canada's auto industry, and announced that Canada would impose dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on US goods beginning 8 September.
Both sides have traded blame for the breakdown in talks. Canadian officials say Washington introduced unacceptable last-minute demands, including a clause that would have restricted Canada's ability to sign trade deals with other countries without US approval — a condition Carney described as a fundamental question of sovereignty. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer countered that it was Canada that added new conditions at the eleventh hour. The collapse marked a striking reversal from earlier in the week, when both sides had expressed cautious optimism about reaching a deal.
The dispute has drawn fierce responses from Canadian provincial leaders. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province is the heart of Canada's auto manufacturing industry — home to major assembly plants run by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — told Trump to
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