President Donald Trump has threatened to impose yet another set of tariffs on Canada—the latest twist in a saga that has seen the president repeatedly institute and then delay sweeping taxes on close allies.
A day after offering a partial one-month reprieve on the 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico, Trump declared Friday, “Canada has been ripping us off for years on lumber and on dairy products.”
He added that the U.S. would be matching Canada’s existing 250 percent tariff on dairy, although he equivocated on when the tax would go into place.
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“We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday,” the president said. “We’re going to charge the same thing. It’s not fair. It never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly.”
Trump has made trade wars with Canada, Mexico, and China a central part of his early-term agenda.
However, a White House official seemed to undercut Trump’s latest threat.
“Discussions with Canada continue,” an unnamed official told NBC News. ”While we don’t have any specific actions to preview at the moment, the president is always ready to take action to save American lives from the scourge of illicit drugs flowing over our borders and shore up our border security.”
Trump has cited fentanyl trafficking as the reason for levying steep tariffs against America’s neighbors, although less than 1 percent of fentanyl seized entering the U.S. comes through the northern border; 98 percent comes from Mexico.
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired back at Trump’s tariffs as they were introduced this week, before the president rolled them back for another month.
“Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with The Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do,” Trudeau said on Tuesday. “We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.”
He added that Canada, which had already retaliated with new tariffs against America, would also challenge the legitimacy of the taxes at the World Trade Organization. Canada and the U.S. have a free trade agreement.
The threat appeared to work, as the tariff roll-back that soon followed reverts the taxes on products protected by the three-way agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
