Trump’s 50% tariffs on Canada take effect as Carney vows to retaliate

President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods are taking effect early Saturday morning, after the United States and Canada failed to reach a trade deal, according to senior Trump administration officials.

The new tariffs, targeting dozens of products from hockey sticks to wine, went into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday.

Both U.S. and Canadian officials blamed the other side for the trade talks falling through.

“Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week, despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.

“In addition, Canada is continuing to maintain its prolonged retaliation against the United States, including, among other things, flat-out prohibitions on certain American goods and services,” he added.

In an announcement late Friday night, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada was suspending the trade talks with the U.S., citing what he called “last-minute changes” to U.S. proposed terms that he described as “unfair” and “uneconomic.”

Carney said the 50% tariff would be applied to roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods and that Canada would match the U.S. “dollar for dollar.” The prime minister said Saturday during a news conference that the retaliatory tariffs would go into effect on Sept. 8 and more details will be revealed later.

The prime minister said that talks broke down this week after American negotiators made requests that were unfavorable to Canada.

“They asked too much and offered too little,” he said at a Saturday press conference.

Carney noted that one of the sticking points was changes by the U.S. over its levels of tariffs on automobiles that he claimed would have hurt Canada’s economy over time.

He criticized the Trump administration which he said “uses economic integration as a weapon.”

“We were not prepared to comprise Canada’s sovereignty or undermine our key industries,” he said at a news conference.

He added, “The new U.S. tariffs are designed to hurt us and divide us. They are a miscalculation, because Canadians will always take care of each other.”

Canada’s tariffs will focus on steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, Carney said.

The move comes just days after Trump pushed back a previous deadline while the two sides negotiated a trade agreement.

Trump claimed earlier this week the U.S. had reached a preliminary deal to resolve a dispute with one of its top trade partners, saying the breakthrough had prompted him to issue a reprieve from the levies.

Due to exemptions on key goods, the tariffs were expected to hit only a fraction of U.S. imports from Canada. Still, the list of affected goods features an array of food items such as dairy products, honey, whey protein and molasses as well as alcoholic beverages like whiskey and vodka.

It all comes weeks after Trump imposed sweeping new tariffs on 60 trade partners, including the European Union. Those levies ramped up an effort to reconstruct far-reaching duties struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

Earlier this week, Trump struck an optimistic tone on the trade talks, saying he had a “very good conversation” with Carney.

The president claimed that as part of the preliminary deal, Canadian tariffs on American agricultural goods would be “non-existent.”

“The tariffs will be non-existent for our farmers. Our farmers were paying tremendous tariffs into Canada. And those tariffs are going to be totally eviscerated down to zero,” Trump noted.

When later asked by a reporter whether the deal would reduce tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, Trump added, “Well, we’re looking at that.”

The U.S. trade representative’s office on X responded to Trump’s announcement Tuesday, providing a bit of insight into what a final deal might entail.

“The deal will include comprehensive market access for all American goods, economic security commitments, digital trade alignment, and many important provisions that will continue to protect our market and American workers, along with our Canadian partners,” the USTR posted.

Earlier this week, Trump had suggested the deal might include a renewed effort to build the Keystone Pipeline despite the project being canceled in 2021 after years of criticism about the project’s environmental impact.

“Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” Trump added in the post.

Unlike previous tariffs, the new U.S. tariffs on Canada would have applied to products compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a free trade agreement. The levies included significant exemptions, however, leaving out some top Canadian imports such as oil, gas and potash.

Trump has carried out on-again, off-again trade negotiations with Canada since he took office, aiming to resolve a dispute that began with tariffs announced by Trump early in his second term.

Trump sought to impose the new tariffs under a legal authority enshrined in section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows the president to enact levies up to 50% for countries found to have discriminated against the U.S. relative to their treatment of other nations.

The provision has never been invoked before, meaning the move lacks judicial precedent, Abigail Watt, an economist at UBS, said in a memo shared with ABC News.