Hmmmm …. Vote crazy Trump administration out!
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With an insulted and angry nation solidly behind him, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada is charging ahead in a bitter trade war with the United States, risking a further fraying of what once was one of the world’s closest friendships.
Retaliatory tariffs, set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, demonstrate Mr. Carney’s defiance toward increasing bombast by President Trump, who has been trying to humiliate Canada economically after more than two weeks of finger pointing and threats.
Mr. Carney’s response has distinguished him as one of the few world leaders standing up to Mr. Trump as he lashes out at American allies on a range of issues.
The new measures will double the rate of existing tariffs that Canadian businesses pay on imported American steel and aluminum products and affect about 700 products, including aluminum foil, railway locomotives and steel bridges.
Polls show that Canadians strongly back Mr. Carney’s decision to end trade talks with Washington last month and hit back with tariffs on about $20 billion in American products entering Canada. But there is also concern over what might happen next. Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened another round of American tariffs if Canada follows through on its plan.
Some in Canadian industry say they are inclined to take Mr. Trump at his word, at least on this threat.
People in the Trump administration “are willing to hurt themselves, their own sectors and industries, in pursuit of their goal, however misguided I think it is,” said Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association of Canada. “So they may escalate. I hope that we don’t end up in a tit-for-tat situation.”
In what appeared to foreshadow Mr. Trump’s latest intentions, he announced on Monday that Bombardier, the Montreal-based aerospace company, would be banned from selling in the American market unless it built in the United States. “They live off American Buyers, American Companies, American Airports, and American Service — All while Canada blocks our GREAT American Banks, and Companies, throughout the U.S.A.,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post announcing the ban.
Mr. Carney announced Canada’s new tariffs after he pulled Canadian negotiators out of talks in Washington last month — an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stave off 50 percent American tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian exports and to reduce or eliminate tariffs of up to 50 percent on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles.
The Trump administration said the tariffs it imposed last month were in part a response to retaliatory tariffs Canada placed last year on some U.S. imports, particularly autos. American officials have repeatedly noted that only China and Canada retaliated against the United States since Mr. Trump began upending global trade.
Since trade tensions began to rise with Canada at the start of Mr. Trump’s second term, the United States has lashed out in ways both substantive and symbolic, including threats to block the reopening of a U.S.-Canada bridge and an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”
At a news conference after a sternly worded speech announcing the tariffs, Mr. Carney declared that Canada had been attacked by the United States and that the two countries are now “at war.”
Last week, Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury secretary, rejected that framing, arguing that Canada is too small an economic power to battle the United States. “I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” Mr. Bessent said on CNBC.
On Friday, Mr. Trump escalated his trade rhetoric even further. He said that he might “end all trade with Canada” and other countries that have trade surpluses with the United States. Mr. Trump has frequently made dramatic threats during trade negotiations that have gone unrealized, such as floating the idea of a 100 percent tariff on Canadian goods in January.
Separately, the U.S. commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said Mr. Carney had shut down the talks to gain “political leverage” at home, not because of what the U.S. side had offered.
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The Blue Water Bridge, connecting Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Mich., this month. Credit…Carlos Osorio/Reuters
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