The delegates from the United States and Canada have not managed to close a new trade agreement this Friday, so tariffs of 50% will be activated on certain products coming from Canada, after several weeks of intense rounds of dialogue between both governments.
"From the beginning, we have recognized that the United States has changed and that we will not return to our old relationship. Our government understood, before many others, that the United States is modifying all its trade relationships, imposing tariffs on its closest allies and charging for access to its huge market," clarified the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, in an official statement.
The measure has been adopted after the last-minute modifications proposed by Washington were described as "unfair, uneconomical, and called into question the reliability of any agreement," according to the official note.
According to previous information from the Bloomberg agency, which cited sources close to the negotiations, the parties believed that the negotiations "were on the right track" and that the United States had agreed to cut tariffs on Canadian vehicles to 15% and reduce those applied to steel and aluminum to 25%, two of the most contentious points in recent months. However, that preliminary understanding fell apart in the final stretch and a definitive consensus was not reached.
"At midnight, the United States plans to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian products worth approximately $28 billion (almost €24 billion). Canada will apply equivalent tariffs, dollar for dollar, to protect our workers and businesses. In the coming days, the government will present additional measures to support Canadian workers and businesses, adding to the nearly $25 billion (€21.3 billion) in aid provided over the last 18 months," announced the Canadian leader.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Administration was willing to cut the current 50% tariffs on certain purchases of aluminum and steel from Canada in half, although pressure from industrial lobbies led to a reconsideration of that reduction and the proposal of new limits. In the quota scheme being considered, any volume of imports exceeding a set threshold would again be subject to the general rate of 50%.
"The agreement with Canada is progressing," Trump declared to reporters this Friday. "I only make good deals -- much better deals for the United States, both with Canada and with Mexico," he added.
In parallel, Washington sought to further restrict the entry of automobiles manufactured in Canada, which has forced both delegations to hold meetings at the U.S. Department of Commerce to try to finalize the last details, after Trump denounced a "discriminatory deal" against Canadian sales.
Meanwhile, Ottawa has not achieved its goal of lowering tariffs on lumber nor of completely removing the threat of new 50% tariffs posed by Trump last July.
The contacts have developed just hours before the United States began imposing the 50% tariffs, which apply to Canadian imports worth about $20 billion (€17.28 billion).
The U.S. president had announced on Wednesday a three-day delay in the implementation of those tariffs, which were supposed to take effect from Thursday, following an understanding that the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, intended to connect Nebraska with Alberta, would resume.
At the same time, Vice President JD Vance has defended protectionist policy from a steel plant in Ohio, highlighting the benefits of tariffs for the national metal manufacturing industry. For its part, sectors of the U.S. steel industry have warned that any exemption or tariff reduction for Canada would jeopardize local investments and jobs.