The countermeasures are a dollar-for-dollar response and mark a further escalation in the trade dispute between Canada and the US. Officials from both countries have blamed each other for the collapse of a deal that had appeared close two weeks earlier.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs of 15-50 per cent on $20 billion of US goods, including clothing, furniture, steel and electronics, have intensified the trade dispute.
With 68 per cent oof Canadian exports heading to the US, uncertainty over USMCA and its future is raising concerns over investment, growth and cross-border trade.
According to Canadian and US government data, Canada has sent almost 68 per cent of its total exports to the US this year. Roughly 80 per cent of those shipments moved duty-free because of exemptions under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA), which has helped cushion Canada’s domestic economy.
US tariffs implemented last month by President Donald Trump covered sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, amounting to $20 billion or 5 per cent of Canadian exports to the US. The US measures were imposed under a Depression-era US law that does not allow Ottawa to use USMCA exemptions.
The wider dispute is creating uncertainty around the USMCA, which is due for annual reviews after Trump declined to extend the pact for another decade. Concerns over the agreement’s future have added to questions over investment and growth while Canada faces a trade conflict with an economy 13 times its size.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (CG)
