USA bans dairy products from Canada and imposes 50% tariff on their products

USA – The USA has announced it is banning dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles from Canada and imposing 50% tariffs on more Canadian products in its latest retaliation against Canada.

Donald Trump also shut Canadian products out of large, long-term US government contracts as Canada’s retaliatory tariffs took effect and Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to speed efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on the United States.

The US president directed the General Services Administration to declare Canadian products ineligible for those contracts until Canada allows full and fair reciprocity for American products.

Carney said that Canada’s strategy was about becoming more independent. “It’s about ensuring that no country can hold us hostage. And that we can live how we want to live.”

The rupture has upended one of the world’s closest relationships. On 22 August, the USA imposed 50% tariffs on about 5% of Canadian imports, charging that Canada had unfairly treated the American dairy, alcoholic beverage and auto industries.

The US and Canada have long sparred over trade, particularly Canada’s protected dairy market and its subsidies for softwood lumber producers. But they remained friends and staunch allies.

Earlier, a Canadian official said Ottawa did not intend to change course, whether Trump responded with nothing or with what the official called a “nuclear response”.

“The government’s strategy will remain focused on building more at home and diversifying trade abroad,” the official said.

Since Canada-USA trade talks collapsed on 21 August, Trump and his administration have imposed additional tariffs and issued a series of threats and attacks portraying Canada as weak and dependent.

Earlier last year, U.S President Donald Trump announced a potential new wave of tariffs targeting Canadian dairy products, just one day after offering Canada a temporary reprieve from broader trade penalties. 

The announcement, made during an Oval Office address, highlighted Trump’s ongoing frustration with Canada’s dairy trade policies and has sparked immediate pushback from Canadian leaders.

Trump cited Canada’s roughly 250% tariff on U.S. dairy exports to justify his plan. 

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