The United States imposed a 50% tariff on some Canadian imports early Saturday after trade talks collapsed. Canada says it will respond with matching tariffs.
DR reports that Washington and Ottawa did not reach a trade agreement before a deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump. Both sides confirmed the failure, and the U.S. moved ahead with the higher duties on certain Canadian goods.
The tariff took effect at 06.01 Danish time on Saturday, August 22, according to AFP as cited by DR. Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, told reporters that Canada had declined to finalize the agreement on the terms settled earlier in the week.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had suspended the negotiations, DR writes, citing Reuters. Carney said his negotiators had worked in good faith until the final moments, but that late changes to the American terms were unreasonable and economically unsound.
Carney also said Canada would answer the new American duties with equivalent tariffs of its own. He questioned how reliable an agreement with the United States would be, according to DR.
Three days of talks in Washington
The breakdown followed three days of negotiations in Washington, D.C., between Greer and Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister responsible for trade with the United States. The two sides were working against the deadline fixed by Trump, DR reports. The increase had originally been due to take effect on Wednesday, before Trump pushed it back by three days.
Reuters reported that the proposed agreement could have lowered tariffs on Canadian-built vehicles to 15% and halved duties on Canadian steel and aluminum to 25%, according to sources. The agency described the two governments as very close to a deal shortly before the deadline, while noting that work remained.
In earlier reporting from July 2026, Reuters put the value of the goods covered by the 50% tariff measure at about $20 billion. That figure covers the specific product categories targeted, not total Canadian exports to the United States.
Why the deadline mattered now
Reuters reported on August 19 that Trump paused the tariffs for three days because the two countries had a deal that was subject to the finalization of documents. That pause created the Saturday cutoff that has now passed without an agreement.
NPR reported that the delay was tied to the last-minute deal, and that Trump linked the agreement to possible work on a contested oil pipeline project. That element was not part of DR’s account of the breakdown.
Neither the U.S. Trade Representative’s office nor the Canadian government has published the full list of affected products, and no timetable for Canadian counter-tariffs has been announced.
