A slew of goods moving between the U.S. and Canada are being hit by sweeping tariffs as the trade war between the allied nations intensifies, threatening to raise prices for consumers on both sides of the border. Retaliatory Canadian tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American products, which Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government would enact after trade talks between the two countries broke down last month, went into effect on Tuesday. The new tariffs are intended to match “dollar for dollar, rate for rate” the ones that U.S.
President Donald Trump’s Administration has levied on Canadian imports. The U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods that went into effect the day after negotiations collapsed in August. The trade war is set to further escalate later this month: the Trump Administration said on Tuesday that it will bar the import of certain dairy products, motorcycles, and alcoholic drinks from Canada, starting on Sept. 29.
The announcement comes after several Canadian provinces prohibited American alcoholic beverages from being sold last year. There is no clear resolution to the conflict on the horizon, and both Trump and Carney are standing their ground. Here’s how the tariffs—on both sides—could affect consumers amid the ongoing rift.
The Trump Administration has levied tariffs on a wide range of Canadian products imported into the U.S., including from the dairy and alcohol industries. In response, Canada fired back with counter tariffs impacting products such as dairy and steel. Experts point out, though, that the goods being affected by the tit-for-tat tariffs make up a small portion of the overall trade between the two countries.
The U.S. tariffs, for instance, are impacting about 5% of the nearly $382 billion worth of goods that Canada exported to the U.S. last year, while the Canada tariffs are affecting about 6% of the more than $330 billion worth of goods that the U.S. exported to its northern neighbor in 2025. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and former lead economist in the Biden Administration’s Office of Tax Policy. But that cost can ultimately get passed on to the consumer through higher prices.
For instance, if the U.S. levies tariffs on milk imported from Canada, then American consumers could see the price of Canadian milk go up on grocery store shelves—and vice versa for Canada’s tariffs on milk imported from the U.S. The actions of the Carney administration are not; they’re hurting Canadian consumers.” Despite that, there is strong support among Canadians for the retaliatory tariffs levied on U.S. goods. A recent Ipsos poll conducted for Global News found that more than 70% of Canadians said they backed the Carney government’s move to enact counter tariffs on U.S. imports, and more than 60% said they agreed with the decision to walk away from the negotiation table “even if it meant higher costs and job losses.” By contrast, a majority of Americans—nearly 60%—said they opposed the U.S. implementing additional tariffs on Canada, according to the findings of an Ipsos poll.
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