Canada hits the U.S. with tariffs on $29.8B worth of goods after Trump slaps levy on metals

Source: The Guardian and CBC News

Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Mélanie Joly, asked Americans to tell their elected representatives that they do not want Donald Trump to pursue a trade war against their northern neighbor. At the same time, Ottawa hit the U.S. with tariffs on $29.8B worth of goods after Trump slapped a levy on metals.

“The only constant in this unjustified and unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talks of annexing our country’s through economic coercion,” Joly told a press conference. 

“Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric. Well, Canadians have made it very clear that we will not back down and we will not give in to this coercion.”

Joly spoke directly to Americans, and asked that they make their objections known:

"To our American friends, I want you to remember this, Canada is your best friend, best neighbor and best ally. Many of us have family on both sides of the border. Canada is also America’s best and biggest customer. We buy more American goods than the UK, France, China and Japan altogether. Together, we have spent generations building a relationship between our countries that is the envy of the world. Canada is not the one driving up the cost of your groceries or of your gasoline or any of your construction. Canada is not the one putting your jobs at risk. Canada is not the one that is ultimately starting this war. President Trump’s tariffs against you are causing that and there are no winners in a trade war."

"American friends, help us help you. Please, help us end these tariffs as quickly as possible, and please talk to your elected representatives at the federal at the state and municipal level, please talk to your governors, to your senators, to your House representatives and to your mayors. Send a message to the White House."

Canada hits the U.S. with tariffs on $29.8B worth of goods after Trump slaps levy on metals

The federal government announced a plan on Wednesday to slap tariffs on $29.8 billion worth of American goods to hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump after he imposed punishing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum early this morning.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the government's point person on Canada-U.S. relations, said Trump's attack on Canadian industry is "unjustified and unjustifiable" and the government must retaliate as the U.S. inserts "disruption and disorder" into what was once one of the most successful trading relationships in the world.

"We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted," he said. 

LeBlanc said the American products being hit with these tariffs include U.S.-made steel and aluminum, computers, sports equipment and certain cast iron products, among others.

Trump's metals tariffs, which took effect just after midnight, are separate from the other tariffs Trump levied on Canada last week — and later partially dialled back — to supposedly pressure the country to do more at the border on drugs and migrants.

Canada immediately levied tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods in response to those initial tariffs — and didn't take them off even after Trump rejigged his tariff regime.

The government is also holding back tariffs on another $125 billion worth of American goods that will be imposed if Trump goes ahead with a third round of what he's calling "reciprocal" tariffs on goods from around the world on April 2.

Harsh rhetoric

Trump deployed harsh rhetoric against Canada on Tuesday, threatening to ruin the country economically and reiterating his desire to see the country become the 51st state.

The U.S. president upped the ante on his annexation taunts, saying the only way for Canada to avoid his attempts to torpedo the economy is for the country to "become our cherished Fifty-First State."

Trump said the border between Canada and the U.S., which was first set centuries ago after the American Revolutionary War and reaffirmed by a series of treaties in the years to follow, is "an artificial line of separation" that he wants to see disappear.