Trade Talks Collapse as US Imposes 50% Tariffs on $20bn in Canadian Goods

The United States has moved forward with 50-percent tariffs on more than $20bn worth of Canadian goods after trade negotiators from both nations failed to finalize an agreement following three days of intensive talks in Washington DC.

As a midnight Saturday deadline set by US President Donald Trump expired, officials from the United States and Canada confirmed that a deal had not been reached. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country would respond by matching the new tariffs "dollar for dollar."

"In recent weeks, we made important progress towards improving Canada’s position as having the best deal in the world with the US," said Carney in an official statement. "However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians." Carney also stated that his government would implement new measures in the coming days to support workers and businesses impacted by the escalating trade dispute.

Meanwhile, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer placed responsibility on Canada, describing the outcome as "a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States." Greer added, "Canada declined to finalise the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week. Despite the US 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."

While the new tariffs impact roughly 5 percent of Canadian imports to the US, they compound existing US levies on steel, lumber, and autos. President Donald Trump initially imposed tariffs on key Canadian imports early in his second term last year, leading Ottawa to institute retaliatory countermeasures. Since then, the two nations have engaged in a series of trade retaliations, accompanied by periodic tariff threats from President Donald Trump, who had stated on Friday that he still expected an agreement to be reached before talks ultimately broke down.