Canadian counter-tariffs target $27.6 billion in U.S. imports

The aim is to match new American tariffs “dollar for dollar,” hitting more than 700 products in the same categories as those Trump targeted on Saturday, with Ottawa’s response set to kick in Sept. 8.

The Canadian counterpunch also goes after sectors the Americans have tariffed as alleged threats to U.S. national security, including steel, aluminum, autos and lumber.

“We will support our workers, our businesses and our industry with whatever it takes, for as long as it takes,” said Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who called the response “proportionate, targeted and strategic” while flanked by other cabinet ministers at a steel roofing business in Ottawa. 

Asked why Canada isn’t going further in its response, after Ontario called for a new surcharge to make Canadian electricity exports more expensive in the U.S., Champagne said the government’s “first principle” is to help Canadian industries hit by U.S. tariffs.

B.C. Premier David Eby is also urging the federal government to go further by cancelling the multibillion-dollar purchase of American F-35 fighter jets and consider taxing the export of U.S. thermal coal that gets shipped from Canada’s West Coast. 

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, however, said that the response so far targets certain U.S. states to exert political pressure on the American side.

She also urged all Canadians to take part in a “movement of resistance to what is happening to us” by purchasing Canadian products.

“What is really important from this new chapter of the trade war is that actually when you choose a Canadian product, you’re not only putting pressure on the U.S., right now you’re protecting jobs,” she said. 

The value of the goods Canada is targeting represents roughly 7.3 per cent of total imports from the U.S., based on 2024 data, federal officials said — a higher proportion than the five per cent hit by Trump’s latest tariffs.

A “fact sheet” published by the White House on Tuesday noted that only Canada and China have chosen “retaliation over negotiation” in response to Trump’s tariffs, and raised several of the president’s complaints about Canadian trade policy, including provincial bans on U.S. alcohol sales that have seen exports to Canada drop 81 per cent in one year. 

“The record of Canadian abuse is clear and deliberate,” the statement charged. 

“Canadian leadership chose retaliation over partnership — and America is no longer willing to carry them.”

The planned response comes after the two countries appeared close to making a trade deal last week, only to see talks fall apart as Canadian and American officials blamed each other for making unreasonable last-minute demands. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney has declared that Canada was “attacked” by American demands that would have infringed on the country’s independence, including by choosing its own trade deals with other countries and setting protections for the French language. 

Tensions have since ratcheted up, with Premier Doug Ford saying Monday that Trump is a “loser” and a “dictator” who can “kiss my ass,” and the U.S. president on Tuesday accusing Carney of lying about the trade talks and demanding that Lake Ontario be renamed “Lake America.”

Trump is also threatening even more tariffs for Jan. 1, when he says the U.S. will hike import duties on Canadian autos and steel to 50 per cent, up from 25 per cent for autos and a current range for steel of between 10 and 50 per cent. The threat prompted Carney to say Trump is confirming Canada’s view that the U.S. government wants to “destroy” major Canadian industries. Joly said Tuesday that the government will “take action” should Trump act on his latest threat through an executive order. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding the government release all details of the failed deal and recall Parliament to address the situation, but so far the Liberal administration has rebuffed him, with Champagne stating Ottawa has been transparent about what’s going on. 

Champagne also declined to confirm a New York Times report that the Canadians offered and then backed away from a proposal to revive the defunct Keystone XL pipeline project from Alberta into the U.S. 

Ford told CNN Tuesday morning that he hopes the two sides can return to the negotiating table to get a fair deal as soon as possible. Carney, however, said Monday that Ottawa has no interest in resuming talks until the U.S. administration changes its attitude and pursues what Canada sees as a “true partnership” between sovereign nations. 

Canadian officials are refusing to discuss any further retaliation that is under consideration, while stressing that their goal in striking back is to minimize the damage to domestic workers and businesses. 

Because of programs to pay back Canadian businesses impacted by the new counter-tariffs and other supports to help them replace tariffed U.S. goods with other options, the government expects Ottawa’s retaliation to have a small impact on the national economy, officials said.

“It’s all about fairness. It’s all about level-playing field,” Champagne told reporters Tuesday.

At the same time, the government is bolstering supports for workers and businesses that have been rocked by months of tariff tension with the Trump administration. This includes $1.5 billion that will be distributed through regional development agencies to help small- and medium-sized businesses whose cash flow has been harmed by the trade war. A Crown corporation that helps businesses will also distribute another $500 million in loans, while the government is creating a new fund worth $2 billion to help companies hit by tariffs to build “shovel-ready projects.”

The government is also making an existing loan program for large companies more generous by extending maximum loan terms from 10 to 15 years.

A further $3.5 billion will go to beefing up existing extensions to federal jobless benefits, including by providing Employment Insurance without a one-week waiting period for another year, extending how long workers can receive EI payments, and allowing them to receive those payments before they use up any severance pay so that “supports starts quickly,” Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said Tuesday. 

Employers will now be able to keep workers for as few as two days a week while the employee still receives EI payments, Hajdu said. The government will also suspend a rule that prevents people who leave their jobs voluntarily from collecting EI.

“We’re not taking these attacks on our economy lying down,” Hajdu said. 

Officials said that more than $30 billion worth of federal supports have been committed since the trade tensions erupted after Trump returned to office last year, which is more than the government has collected in revenue from its counter-tariffs on U.S. goods in response to Trump’s series of levies on Canadian products.