Canada Suspends Trade Talks and Will Hit Back Sept. 8 After Trump's 50% Tariffs Take Effect at Midnight

Trade negotiations between the United States and Canada collapsed on the night of Aug. 21, hours before a midnight deadline for 50 percent U.S. tariffs to take effect on about $20 billion in Canadian goods, including some dairy products, alcoholic beverages, cement and hockey equipment. Customs and Border Protection told businesses its officers would enforce the new rates immediately. Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada "will match those tariffs dollar for dollar," announced retaliation beginning Sept. 8 aimed at U.S. steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics, and said he had suspended negotiations and recalled negotiators to Ottawa.

Each side blamed the other. Carney said "last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal." U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Canada had "declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week," citing an American offer of tariff cuts on steel, aluminum, autos and lumber. Trump posted overnight that "Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!"

Carney said details would follow, taking force the Tuesday after Labour Day. These are the tariffs Trump paused on Aug. 18.