American President Donald Trump reopened a front in his trade war with Canada by signing, on Monday July 20, a decree imposing 50% additional customs duties on several products from the maple leaf country. This decision comes “in response to discriminatory treatment (from Ottawa) on American products »Washington pointing to conflicts over dairy products, alcohol and automobiles.
These new customs duties, which are due to come into force in a month, will apply to products as varied as wine, hockey sticks and even cement. Those entering the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement (Aceum) will also be affected. Several sectors considered essential, such as energy, potash, fishing products or critical minerals, are however explicitly excluded from this new surcharge.
“This is the latest in a series of unilateral trade actions taken by the United States through the imposition of a series of tariffs in direct violation” of Aceum, quickly reacted the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. He added that Ottawa had made proposals to resolve the trade dispute with Washington and that he was “ready to intensify these discussions”.
Access for American dairy products to the Canadian market has been the subject of dispute, within the framework of Aceum, with the Trump administration accusing Ottawa of not respecting its obligations in this area. But the decision of a settlement group – a procedure provided for by the agreement – ruled in favor, at the end of 2023, in Canada, which voluntarily limited the tariff quota for American milk, i.e. the quantity of dairy products entering the country without being taxed.
American alcohol boycotted by Canadian provinces
The American government has launched several procedures within the framework of the agreement, without the situation having evolved so far. Since then, there has been a boycott launched by almost all Canadian provinces on American alcohol.
“Unlike other partners and allies, Canada continues to retaliate against the United States and its efforts to rebalance its trade balance”lamented the White House trade representative, Jamieson Greer, in a press release. “Canada removed American alcohol products from its shelves, granted better access to European dairy products and added a cap on American vehicles exported to Canada by companies that have relocated”specified Mr. Greer, believing that the decree “keeps Canada accountable”.
In most provinces, public entities organize the alcohol trade; several of them decided to no longer buy American products after Donald Trump imposed a first series of 25% customs duties against Canada upon his return to the White House in January 2025. The American president then accused the northern neighbor, like Mexico, of not fighting effectively against fentanyl trafficking and migration routes to the United States.
However, he clarified that these surcharges did not apply to products circulating within the framework of Aceum, which represents more than 80% of Canadian exports to the United States, according to data from Ottawa.
Commercial investigations
These customs duties were, however, canceled at the end of February by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, at the same time as all the non-sectoral customs duties imposed by the White House, the highest American court considering that the president had exceeded his prerogatives in this matter. Donald Trump has since sought to reimpose all of the canceled surcharges, having temporarily implemented 10% customs duties.
These, however, expire on Friday, and the White House could announce a new series of customs duties, while commercial investigations into the practices of around sixty countries, among the main trading partners of the United States, have been launched in order to justify new surcharges.
Brazil thus became, on Thursday July 16, the first target of these new customs duties, with a 25% surcharge imposed on a certain number of products exported to the United States and which will come into force on Wednesday.
A sign of the recurring tensions between the two North American neighbors, Donald Trump threatened on Friday to impose new customs duties on Canadian products because of the forest fires, the smoke of which has seriously degraded the air quality in the northeast of the United States. He accused Ottawa of “willful negligence”believing that the country did not know “not maintained properly” its forests.
