Canada vows to match Trump’s 50% tariffs after trade deal talks fail

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has promised to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar”, after the two sides failed to agree a trade deal by the midnight deadline.

“Last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Carney said in a statement.

The US is imposing 50% tariffs on $20bn worth of Canadian products after last-ditch negotiations failed to resolve the latest strain in already tense relations between the historic allies.

“Tonight, Canada declined to finalise the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week,” US trade representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement read to reporters on a press call shortly before midnight on Friday.

“Despite the US offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days.”

Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the US every year, including products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.

But the political impact will likely be even bigger than the economic fallout. The countries sold each other $880bn worth of goods and services last year.

The tariffs were initially supposed to kick in at 12.01am Wednesday. Trump extended the deadline for three days to allow talks to continue, but the two countries still could not reach an agreement in time.

With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

The Guardian wp:paragraph