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Ottawa retaliated for Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Canada with a levy of the same amount on $29.8 billion of goods brought in from the United States, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said.
Canada will impose the duties at 12:01 a.m. on March 13. They’ll cover steel, aluminum and $14.6 billion of other products, including computers, sports equipment and cast-iron products, the finance minister told reporters, as cited by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted,” LeBlanc said. He called Trump’s attacks on Canadian industry “unjustified and unjustifiable” and inserting “disruption and disorder” into a successful trading relationship.
The Trump Administration yesterday backed down on a planned increase in the steel and aluminum levies on Canada to 50% from 25% after Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to suspend a new export levy on electricity sent to the U.S. after a discussion with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
The Canadian government is set to impose tariffs on an additional $125 billion of U.S.-made products if Trump proceeds with a third round of “reciprocal” tariffs on goods worldwide on April 2.
E.U. Response
The E.U. earlier unveiled retaliatory tariffs on 26 billion euros of American products. As for Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum said the country won’t respond to the U.S. levies for now, but will try to negotiate a deal, particularly with Trump vowing “reciprocal” tariffs next month, Reuters (TRI-0.43%) reported.
The European response to the Trump administration’s tariffs is “out of step with reality,” Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, said in a statement, because it “completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States.”
“For years, the European Union has opposed the United States’ efforts to reindustrialize,” Greer said, adding that the bloc has rejected long-running U.S. attempts to deal with excess global capacity in steel, aluminum and other sectors.