Canada will impose matching tariffs on U.S. goods starting September 8 after Washington imposed a 50% duty on roughly $20 billion of Canadian exports following the collapse of trade negotiations.
The U.S. action, announced late Friday, took effect at midnight on Saturday after President Donald Trump extended a previously scheduled deadline by three days. The duties cover a range of Canadian products including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics. Ottawa described the U.S. demands as "unfair" and "uneconomic," stating that last-minute changes undermined the reliability of any potential deal.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Washington’s final proposals asked "too much and offered too little," adding that substantial progress had been made earlier in the week despite remaining gaps. The Canadian government did not specify which U.S. goods would face retaliation but indicated the response would be dollar-for-dollar in scale.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox News there would be "no new planned talks" with Canada and that Washington was proceeding with measures to "protect American workers and supply chains." The dispute follows the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), under which most Canadian imports to the U.S. remain duty-free.
Bilateral trade between the two nations reached $880 billion in 2025, according to the latest available data. The affected Canadian shipments represent approximately 5% of annual exports to the U.S., which currently faces a 10% tariff on most imports under Trump’s broader trade policy.
Canada’s response marks the latest escalation in trade tensions, with both sides signaling limited appetite for further negotiations in the near term.
