Canada pauses some counter tariffs against US
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The US and Canadians flags at Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine, Washington.
PHOTO: AFP
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OTTAWA - Canada has temporarily paused some counter-tariffs against the US, but Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on May 18 pushed back against claims they have all been quietly lifted.
The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won Canada’s April 28 election on a pledge to stand up to US President Donald Trump, had slapped counter-tariffs on billions of dollars of imports
During the election campaign, automakers were offered a reprieve, provided they maintained production and investment in Canada.
This was outlined on May 7 in the Canada Gazette, the government’s official newspaper, along with a pause on tariffs on products used in food and beverage processing and packaging, health, manufacturing, national security and public safety.
Oxford Economics said in a report last week that the exemptions covered so many categories of products that the tariffs rate against the US was effectively dropped to “nearly zero”.
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre pounced on the claim, widely cited in the media, to accuse Mr Carney of having “quietly dropped retaliatory tariffs to ‘nearly zero’ without telling anyone”.
Mr Champagne called those assertions “falsehoods”.
“To retaliate against US tariffs, Canada launched largest-ever response – including $60 billion of tariffs on end-use goods. Seventy per cent of those tariffs are still in place,” he said on X.
Canada’s tariffs response, his office told AFP, “was calibrated to respond to the US while limiting economic harm to Canada”.
Tariffs relief was provided for six months to give some Canadian companies “more time to adjust their supply chains and become less dependent on US suppliers”, Mr Champagne’s spokeswoman Audrey Milette said.
Canada continues to charge tariffs on roughly C$43 billion (S$40 billion) of US goods, she added.
The nation of 41 million people sends three-quarters of its exports to the US, and the latest jobs report shows tariffs imposed by Mr Trump are already damaging the Canadian economy.
The US President has slapped general tariffs of 25 per cent on Canada as well as sector-specific levies on autos, steel and aluminium, but he has suspended some of them pending negotiations. AFP
