Canada to Hit US Goods With Retaliatory Tariffs Starting Sept. 8, Carney Says

OTTAWA, Ontario —

Trade talks between the United States and Canada fell apart on Friday, and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said his government will respond with its own tariffs on American goods starting September 8, according to CNBC.

The move follows new 50 percent US tariffs that took effect Saturday on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian exports, including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, CNBC reported. Carney said Canada instructed its negotiators to walk away from the talks Friday evening, just hours before the US tariffs kicked in, The Hill reported.

"They Asked Too Much"

Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa on Saturday, Carney said US negotiators had gone too far in their final demands. "They asked too much and offered too little," he said, according to CNBC. He said Canada had offered to drop its remaining retaliatory tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos if the United States lowered its own tariffs on those products.

Carney said Canada's new tariffs will target sectors including steel, dairy, agricultural equipment, appliances, pulp and paper, and electronics, with further details expected in the coming days, according to The Hill. He described the decision as reluctant. "Reluctantly because we recognize that some of these measures will raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians," he said, adding that some US companies and states are "innocent bystanders in a dispute that they did not want," The Hill reported.

Carney also pointed to Canada's energy exports to the United States. "Canada fuels American growth," he said, adding that he doesn't believe Washington wants Canada to stop sending that energy, according to CNBC.

Both Sides Point Fingers

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on social media that "Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week," according to CNBC. Greer said the United States had offered "significant tariff reductions on steel, aluminium, autos and lumber" in exchange for Canadian concessions, Euronews reported. In a Fox News appearance Saturday, Greer said there are no new talks currently planned with Canada, telling the network Canada "always had the best deal" and would have had an even better one, according to CNBC.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, criticized the US tariffs on social media, writing that Trump "just slapped another bill on hardworking American families" and calling on the tariffs to end, CNBC reported.

The breakdown adds to strain between the two countries, which had also been negotiating a renewal of their trilateral trade pact with Mexico, the USMCA, that was not renewed in July over US concerns about trade deficits, according to CNBC. A former US commerce official, Ryan Majerus, told AFP that Canada's retaliatory tariffs would make defusing the dispute "a lot harder," Euronews reported.