“That’s enough!” Donald Trump, the American president, castigated Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday August 23, at a time when trade tensions between the two countries are intensifying. The United States imposed 50% customs duties on Canadian products on Saturday. In response, Canada announced retaliatory measures targeting American steel or dairy products, angering Washington which then threatened to outbid.
“Canada wants the advantages of a state (of the United States, Editor’s note) without being one!” declared the American president in a message on his Truth Social network.
“They have also imposed enormous tariffs on our great farmers for many years. Enough is enough!” he added.
A translated post from Donald Trump on Truth Social, August 23, 2026. © Truth Social
Mark Carney said on Saturday that the new customs duties will also affect the paper industry, agricultural machinery and electronics. They will come into force on September 8, the Canadian Prime Minister said during a press conference.
The amount of these Canadian surcharges will be “to the nearest dollar” that of the American customs duties which came into force on Saturday and affecting approximately 20 billion dollars of Canadian imports, including cement and hockey sticks.
Previously, American negotiator Jamieson Greer declared on Fox News that the United States would “move forward with measures to respond to Canadian retaliation”, without giving details. He also affirmed that no round of negotiations with Canada was on the agenda.
After weeks of talks, Mark Carney decided Friday evening to end the negotiations, just before the White House ultimatum expired.
“At the last moment, the United States tried to add elements to restrict our ability to have other trade agreements,” he denounced from Ottawa.
“When you are attacked, it is because you are at war. We have been attacked,” declared the Canadian Prime Minister, according to whom the United States “asked too much and offered too little”.
Deterioration of relationships
Mark Carney also spoke of “threats against the French language” and “Quebec culture” relating, according to him, to subsidies for French-speaking culture, the place of French media online and the obligation for bilingual labeling of products sold in Canada. “This is not acceptable,” he stressed.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, Canada has been on the front line of the trade war launched by the American president, who continues to say that he wants to make his neighbor the “51e American state.
But the deterioration of their relations over the past year and a half reaches a new level, this additional salvo of American surcharges affecting in particular products normally protected by the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“It’s going to hurt everyone,” laments Stuart Edwards, a Canadian, speaking from the border town of Fort Erie, near Niagara Falls. “It’s sad,” he told AFP, but “we will resist.”
Canada vs Trump: the tone is rising, border residents are organizing
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Cover image: Focus © France 24
“Trade war”
“America has changed” and “we cannot control the storm that is blowing from Washington,” insisted Mark Carney.
The Canadian government, which called for a reduction in surcharges on hard-hit sectors such as steel, had sent signs of goodwill, asking provincial authorities to put an end to the boycott of American wines and spirits, a central demand from Washington. In vain.
In Canada, the entire political class supported the decision to break off negotiations. The fact remains that the Canadian economy could suffer severely from these new surcharges and counter-surtaxes, along with the United States.
They are, by far, Canada’s largest trading partner, with exports to this country currently representing around 70% of the total.
The Business Roundtable, which brings together more than 200 leaders of major American companies, called on the two governments to “return to the negotiating table” and “lift harmful tariffs”, according to a written statement from its general director, Joshua Bolten.
Mark Carney tried to reassure businesses by announcing support measures “for as long as it takes”. They will be detailed next week.
Since his arrival in March 2025, Mark Carney has been trying to reduce his country’s dependence on its big neighbor by looking for new trade partners in Asia or Europe.
“We are stronger now than we were when the United States started this trade war. More united, more determined, more ambitious,” he said.
With AFP
