President Trump imposes new 50% tariffs on Canadian imports
President Trump has imposed new 50% tariffs on many Canadian imports, from wine to hockey sticks to cement.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on July 20 took executive action imposing new 50% tariffs on a wide range of Canadian imports in retaliation for what his administration called Canada’s trade practices with the United States in certain industries “discriminatory,” according to administration officials.
The move risks further reigniting the trade war between Canada and the United States and comes after President Trump threatened tariffs on Canada in response to smoke flowing into the United States from wildfires raging in Canada. But one administration official said President Trump is considering less specific tariff options to respond to wildfires.
The blanket tariffs, which will take effect on Aug. 19, will apply to a wide range of Canadian imports, from wine and dairy products to hockey sticks and cement, but will not apply to energy, potash, fish or critical minerals, among other exceptions, officials said. All other Canadian exports are subject to tariffs, including those made tariff-free under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico agreement signed in 2019.
Trump administration officials, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the move, cited Canada’s trade practices for alcoholic beverages, automobiles and dairy products exported from the United States as factors prompting the move, which the officials characterized as a “defensive move.”
Over the past year, all but two Canadian provinces have suspended the purchase of alcohol from the United States, but not from other countries. Canada imposes tariffs on cars from the United States, but not on other countries. Canada also has stricter tariff quotas on U.S. cheese than Canada’s policy with the European Union, officials said.
President Trump signed three proclamations formalizing the tariffs by invoking Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, often referred to as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. This 100-year-old law is different from the one President Trump previously cited in pushing for the use of presidential emergency powers to impose reciprocal tariffs on nations: the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
In February, the Supreme Court blocked President Trump from using emergency powers to impose tariffs under a 1977 law, forcing the White House to pursue other legal options to unilaterally impose fees on imported goods.
The United States and Canada have been targeting exports from each other for more than a year as their trade war escalates. After President Trump imposed a 25% tariff on automobiles imported from Canada, Canada will also impose the same tariff on automobiles as the United States. President Trump also imposed a 50% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports and a 10% tariff on all timber imports, both of which affect products from Canada.
“While the administration continues to secure fair and reciprocal trade agreements with our trading partners, Canada, unlike other partners and allies, continues to retaliate against the United States for its efforts to rebalance trade and protect American industry in areas sensitive to national security,” Jamieson Greer, President Trump’s U.S. trade representative, said in a statement.
President Trump’s latest tariff announcement came a day after he and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney interacted in East Rutherford, New Jersey. There, the two leaders watched the World Cup championship deciding match between Spain and Argentina.
Ahead of the meeting, President Trump slammed Canada in a post on Truth Social for the “filthy, polluted, unhealthy air” over the United States caused by the Canadian wildfires. President Trump said the costs of dealing with pollution “necessarily have to be added to the tariffs that Canada currently pays.”
Trump told reporters after the World Cup that he spoke with Carney about the wildfires during the game. “I told him, ‘We’ve got to stop the fires from coming in and polluting our air.’ Our air is polluted. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but we’ve got to stop the fires out there.”
Trump added: “Maybe they should pay us damages or something. Or we should impose some tariffs.”
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
