The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is accelerating the trade war triggered with the neighboring country, Canada. In a message on his social network, Truth, the Republican announced this Monday 50% tariffs on vehicles, vehicle components, and steel coming from Canada starting January 1, 2027.
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“Canada has been cheating the United States for years,” the president says in his message, in which he accuses the northern neighbor of having “created a $60 billion deficit between the two countries.” “Canada will no longer be treated as if it were a state of the United States!” adds the president. “They think they are entitled, but we don’t need Canada, they are the ones who need us.”
The two countries definitively broke off talks on Friday to avoid the imposition of new tariffs threatened by the United States. On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that starting September 8, his country will impose reciprocal tariffs, dollar for dollar, on U.S. products. He also pointed to the possibility of taking retaliations into the energy sector, a taboo until now.
Canadian taxes on imports from the United States will affect products such as steel, dairy, appliances, paper, electronics, and agricultural equipment, among others. In turn, the United States imposes from this Saturday 50% tariffs on hundreds of Canadian products, from electrical material to hockey equipment, including liquors and wood.
The United States had threatened to impose harsher measures if Canada responded to its tariffs, something that could trigger a serious escalation in a trade war that already affects goods and services valued at $900 billion between the two neighbors. The United States is the main market for exports from the neighboring country, which supplies it, among other products, vehicles, auto parts, and oil. Canada, in turn, is the largest buyer of U.S. goods, only behind the European Union, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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Trump has ignored these figures. In his message, he says that Canada “does 95% of its deals with the United States.” “For us, the exact opposite happens,” he adds in a message that does not match what his own government’s data say.
The two countries have mutually accused each other of the failure of talks on Friday, three days after the contacts seemed on track. Last Tuesday, the U.S. president had announced a three-day extension in the imposition of U.S. tariffs, which were initially to take effect on August 19, due to progress in those negotiations.
The U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, attributed the failure to last-minute Canadian demands, something Carney flatly denied. On Ottawa’s side, it is claimed that Washington imposed unacceptable last-minute demands that included the removal of the obligation to include instructions and labels in French, co-official in Canada, and restrictions so that the northern country could sign free trade agreements with other countries.