Trade dispute between Canada and U.S. deepens after negotiations collapse
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is planning to match U.S. levies ‘dollar for dollar,’ after the 50 per cent tariffs took effect on Aug. 21 at 12:01 ET. The two countries had ramped-up trade talks over the last three days after Trump extended the tariff deadline earlier this week.
The ongoing trade dispute between Canada and the United States has deepened after high-stakes negotiations fell apart at the 11th hour on Friday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would retaliate “dollar for dollar” after the Trump administration delivered on its threat to impose crushing 50 per cent tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Canadian goods. The two governments’ trade representatives said they had come close to finalizing an agreement in recent days, but Carney said Ottawa couldn’t accept the terms on the table.
“Last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Carney wrote in a statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump did not immediately comment. His government’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said Ottawa had declined to accept the administration’s proposed deal.
The fresh American tariffs and the promise of Canadian counter-tariffs are a significant escalation in the dispute between Canada and the U.S., two countries once seen as being as close as can be on trade. Canada’s trade minister was locked into negotiations with Greer, his American counterpart, throughout the week in Washington to try to find an agreement before Friday’s deadline.
While much of the tariff discussion this week has revolved around the highest echelons of political power, businesses on both sides of the border waited to see whether the latest threat to their livelihoods would come to pass.
“This will be a body blow to North American competitiveness in this self-defeating trade saga,” Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said. “A whopping, non-absorbable tariff is not sustainable or viable for business.”
