Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs on American goods from September 8, after negotiations on a trade deal with the United States collapsed.
Carney made the announcement at a press conference on Saturday. DR reports, citing Canadian public broadcaster CBC, that the measures follow the breakdown of talks between Ottawa and Washington.
According to DR, Carney did not specify at the press conference which American goods will be covered. The United States has already imposed punitive tariffs on Canadian goods.
On the reason for the breakdown, Carney said the United States demanded too much and offered too little. He stressed that American demands, not Canadian ones, caused the talks to fail. He also said the proposed agreement would have prevented Canada from entering trade agreements with other countries, which he called unacceptable.
Carney added that the United States tried to limit Canada’s protection of its language, culture and sovereignty. Per DR, he gave no further details about the restrictions Washington demanded, and the United States had not immediately commented on his remarks.
BBC reports that new American tariffs of 50 percent are already in force on a wide range of Canadian exports, including wine, dairy, cement, clothing and hockey equipment. Estimates of the trade affected differ. CTV News cites about 28 billion U.S. dollars, while ABC News in Australia reports about 20 billion.
As reported by Reuters, Carney said details of the Canadian measures will be released in the coming days. The tariffs are set to begin on the Tuesday after Labor Day. BBC reports that he pledged to match the American levies dollar for dollar.
ABC News and The Hindu Business Line report that the Canadian response is expected to hit sectors including steel, dairy, household appliances, agricultural machinery, pulp and paper, and electronics. Reuters notes that product by product lists have not yet been published.
The two sides give different accounts of the collapse. DR reports that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Canada rejected terms both parties had agreed on earlier in the week. According to BBC, Carney said last minute American changes made the deal unfair and uneconomic, and questioned the reliability of any agreement.
Why now
CBC and BBC report that the talks broke down shortly before a midnight deadline. The American tariffs then took effect automatically under earlier proclamations by President Donald Trump.
CBC’s earlier reporting states that those proclamations set a window of roughly 30 days before the tariffs would apply, creating a fixed deadline for the negotiations. CBC also reports that the American measures were imposed under the Tariff Act of 1930, and that Washington framed them as a response to Canadian treatment of U.S. exports in autos, dairy and alcohol.
