From hockey sticks to cement: The U.S. imposes 50 percent tariffs on imports from Canada
Donald Trump signed three executive orders imposing 50 percent tariffs on various categories of Canadian imports, unnamed officials from the U.S. president’s administration told reporters / Photo: White House
U.S. President Donald Trump signed three executive orders on Monday imposing 50 percent tariffs on various categories of Canadian imports, unnamed White House officials said during a telephone briefing with reporters, according to CNBC. The officials asked the media not to reveal their names, the Associated Press notes.
“With this decision, President Trump is leveling the playing field for key U.S. export goods: automobiles, alcohol, and dairy products,” the TV channel quotes one of the officials as saying. The trade surcharges are being imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and will take effect 30 days after the documents are signed. This law gives the president the authority to impose duties of up to 50% on goods from countries that, in the U.S. view, discriminate against American trade, Bloomberg explains. The agency notes that this provision has never before been used to impose duties.
Each of the three executive orders signed applies to specific Canadian goods — “from wine and hockey sticks to cement,” said one participant in the conference call, according to CNBC. “Canada must be held accountable for its ongoing discrimination,” the official said.
Such a move by the U.S. administration could trigger a new wave of economic instability, heighten inflationary risks, and lead to a further deterioration in relations between the two countries, whose economies were closely linked before Trump’s return to the White House, the Associated Press notes. An unnamed official, who briefed reporters on the decision in advance, stated that Canada was one of the few countries, aside from China, that had retaliated against Trump’s previous tariffs and must now bear the consequences.
Last week, the U.S. president threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian goods to punish the country for the smoke from wildfires that blanketed U.S. cities, including New York and Washington, throughout the week, according to Bloomberg . The U.S. is still considering possible measures in response to this threat, but the decision made on Monday is not related to the wildfires, a Bloomberg source said.
Trade relations between the two countries have become more complicated after the U.S. declined earlier this month to renew the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, known as the USMCA. This has paved the way for potentially lengthy and tense negotiations, according to Bloomberg.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
