Trump imposes new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian exports in "dangerous" escalation of tensions between neighbors

Image caption, Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

Published 3 hours ago

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US President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on a wide range of goods imported from Canada.

This step comes in response to what Trump called an "unfair treatment" by Canada of American goods including cars, dairy products, and alcohol.

The tariffs also come days after threats by Trump to add the cost of fighting pollution in the United States to tariffs on Canadian goods, as Trump blames his country's pollution on wildfire smoke coming from Canada.

These new tariffs are likely to strengthen existing trade barriers between Canada and the United States.

The White House announced that the new tariffs will take effect within 30 days - a dangerous escalation of trade tensions between the two neighbors.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in turn, said he had previously spoken to President Trump, and they agreed to "intensify trade talks" in an attempt to calm tensions.

Through these talks, Canada seeks to secure an agreement that would at least reduce the current US tariffs.

But Carney warned that "all options" are on the table regarding Canada's response to the threat posed by the new tariffs.

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In a post on X, Carney described the new tariffs as "the latest in a series of unilateral US trade decisions that began with imposing a series of tariffs, in direct violation of the existing free trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico."

Earlier this year, the United States chose not to renew the free trade agreement in its current form; Washington seeks to make amendments to the agreement that was negotiated during Trump's first term.

According to a fact sheet issued by the White House on Monday, Trump's new tariffs will apply regardless of whether the targeted goods are covered under the existing free trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The targeted Canadian goods in Trump's new tariffs included items for daily consumption such as alcohol and industrial items like cement; while these new tariffs exempted many major Canadian exports such as energy goods, potash, critical minerals, and fish.

Image caption, Photo from the Port of Montreal in Canada (archive)

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has embarked on implementing a global tariff program, sometimes pursuing goals not directly related to trade.

Earlier, the US Supreme Court ruled that many of the tariffs Trump imposed globally - under emergency powers - were unlawful.

The White House pledged to invoke other mechanisms to impose tariffs, with Trump taking a different legal path to advance his agenda; including his latest decision on Monday night, which used a vague and different law from 1930 allowing tariffs of up to 50 percent on imports from specific countries.

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It is noted that Canada is among the few close US trading partners that have responded to the tariffs Trump imposed on them the previous year.

Canada imposed 25 percent tariffs on American imports worth approximately 21.7 billion US dollars, before Mark Carney later exempted some of them.

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