Canada will impose new taxes on American products

Canada will impose new customs duties on Thursday, March 13, on certain American products to meet customs taxes “Unjustified and unreasonable” Imposed by Donald Trump on steel and aluminum that have been applied since Wednesday.

Customs taxes of 25 % will be implemented on $ 29.8 billion Canadian dollars (around 19 billion euros) in US imports, Dominic Leblanc, the Canadian Minister of Finance Minister on Wednesday. Among the goods targeted: steel products for a value of 12.6 billion Canadian dollars, aluminum for 3 billion and products ranging from computers to sports equipment.

“We will not stay in crossed arms while our emblematic industries of steel and aluminum are unjustly targeted”added Dominic Leblanc.

Washington has imposed customs duties of 25 % since midnight on steel and aluminum on all countries. But Canada, the United States’s leading supplier for steel and aluminum, is particularly in the viewfinder of Donald Trump, who planned Tuesday to double these customs duties against Ottawa, before changing his mind. But the American president also warned that “Canada D[evait] Immediately drop its American antifermers taxes from 250 % to 390 % on various American dairy products ”adding that if Ottawa would not obtain, Washington would impose on April 2 of such customs taxes on cars that this “Will definitively stop the automotive industry in Canada”.

“An existential threat to our country”

The new Canadian measures are added to customs duties of 25 % established on $ 30 billion Canadian dollars of American products since March in response to the first series of trade taxes imposed by Trump on Canadian products.

“It is not only a threat to Canadian jobs, it is not only a threat to the many families who live in these jobs, it is an existential threat to our country”said Mélanie Joly, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs during the same press conference. “We will fight for families, and we will fight for what we are as a country, because it is not only about the economy, it is the future of our country”she added.

The future Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, also said on Wednesday to be ready to speak directly with the American president, Donald Trump, of trade relations between the two countries. “I am ready to sit with President Trump at the right time, in a position where there is respect for Canadian sovereignty and where we work on a common and much more global approach for trade”he said during a visit to a steel factory in Hamilton, in the province of Ontario, adding that “We will all be better when the largest economic and security partnership in the world will be renewed and relaunched”.

Riposte of the European Union

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, the European Commission also announced that it would tax a series of American products ranging from boats to Bourbon via motorcycles, from 1^er april. The European Union (EU) “Deeply regret” The measures decided by the American president, Donald Trump, said the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, believing that the European replica was “Strong but proportionate”. EU “Responds firmly” but “Does not want to cause climbing”in order to “Solving problems and [de] Continue to work together as [de] good partners ”, For his part, said on Wednesday, Antonio Costa, president of the European Council.

China also reacted to the entry into force on Wednesday, customs duties of 25 % on steel and aluminum desired by the American president, promising to take “All necessary measures” to protect his interests.