The Canadian government on Tuesday retaliated against President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs by raising rates on steel products and adding a swath of new duties on $20 billion worth of U.S. products exported to Canada. The new duties of between 15% and 50% will take effect on Sept. 8, the Canadian government said. These counter-tariffs “will focus on sectors such as steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, that are most impacted by U.S. tariffs,” Canada’s finance ministry said.
The announcement came after the United States hit scores of Canadian products with new 50% tariffs that went into effect early Saturday. These levies followed weeks of trade negotiations that broke down, putting the longtime allies on unfamiliar footing. Prime Minister Mark Carney said he pulled the plug on a deal late Friday only after Washington proposed “unfair” and “uneconomic” terms at the last minute.
American officials rebutted Carney’s account of why the talks collapsed. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that he had “sought to accommodate the Canadians by ... cutting tariffs in half on steel, on aluminum, and extensively reducing them on, on autos and even on things like, like softwood lumber.” “They simply wanted more,” Greer told CNBC. Canada’s plan for retaliation against Washington comes as Trump and Canadian officials traded dozens of insults over the past few days.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a Canadian radio show Monday that Trump could “kiss my ass.” “We’re going to go at him full steam,” said Ford, who has backed Carney’s response to Trump’s tariffs. Trump wasted little time responding to what he called “lots of ‘bluster’ from Doug Ford.” “Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” Trump wrote on social media. Within hours, Trump threatened to impose a second wave of 50% tariffs on Canadian autos and steel.
Ford later called the president the “king of bankruptcies.” “I’m not going to take the bait,” Ford said. In 2025, Ford’s Ontario ran a TV ad during the MLB World Series broadcast. The ad, which Ford also posted on X, opened with a clip of U.S.
President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. He also threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on Canadian goods but did not follow through at the time. The ad was eventually pulled down after Ford said he had achieved his goal of starting a “conversation.”
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