Canada announced retaliatory tariffs as high as 50 percent on hundreds of American products on Tuesday, just days after the collapse of trade talks triggered punishing tariffs from the Trump administration.
As a trade war between the countries intensifies, Canada will start collecting tariffs of 50, 25 and 15 percent on about 700 products beginning on Sept. 8. The most significant measure is a doubling of tariffs on American steel and aluminum to 50 percent. But the list of products affected ranges from household rolls of aluminum foil to railway locomotives and steel bridges.
Many of the American products Canada will now tax mirror the Canadian exports hit by the new U.S. tariffs, particularly in clothing, forestry products and tools. But Canada is also targeting consumer products like dishwashers and washing machines and stoves.
A wide array of fish, frozen and fresh, also dominate the list.
The new Canadian list covers about $20 billion of imports from the United States, the same value as the Canadian exports affected by the tariffs.
After the collapse of the negotiations in Washington, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, an economist and former central banker, said that Canada would match the American tariffs “dollar for dollar.” But he also acknowledged that the move “will raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians.”
Mr. Carney left the announcement of the tariffs to several of his cabinet ministers and had no public events on his schedule for Tuesday.
One of the major sources of tension in the trade negotiations was the United States’ 25 percent tariff on automobiles, a major export for Canada, introduced about 18 months ago. On Tuesday Canada said it would keep its retaliatory tariff on American-made cars at 25 percent and maintain a system that allows companies that build cars in Canada to continue to import them from the U.S. tariff-free, within limits. Canadians buy more cars from the United States that they ship there.
On Monday President Trump threatened to double the auto tariff to 50 percent, a rate that would likely doom Canadian car plants, which export upward of 90 percent of what they build. He also threatened to apply that rate to Canadian auto parts, which are currently sold free of tariffs if they qualify as North American-made under the now-shattered free trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Canada imports about $272 billion in U.S. goods a year. Canadian officials said that the government anticipates that it will spend far more on keeping Canadian exporters in business than it will collect from the tariff. The officials, in a briefing for journalists ahead of the announcement, noted that the intention is to protect Canadian manufacturers, not raise money.
Many economists say that because Canada’s economy is about one-twelfth the size of the U.S. economy, its retaliatory tariffs will have the effect of a pea shooter in a gun battle. At the same time, most economists say, price increases caused by tariff retaliation will actually harm Canadian companies.
Opinion polls taken before Mr. Trump’s new 50 percent tariffs came into effect on Saturday show widespread support among Canadians for economic retaliation. Enthusiasm for the idea has been more mixed among provincial leaders.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, the most populous province and the home to much of Canada’s manufacturing, is a vigorous promoter of retaliation. Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, whose oil is overwhelmingly Canada’s largest export, has urged restraint.
Mr. Trump’s tariffs have excluded oil, natural gas, the fertilizer potash and many minerals.
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