Heavy trucks broke the talks; Trump says Canada wants a state's benefits
Talks broke after Washington pulled Ford's Ontario heavy trucks from tariff relief. Tariffs of 50 per cent now hit 20 billion dollars of Canadian goods, and the USMCA pact covering 2 trillion dollars sits in question.
Economics & Markets··Night
Washington pulled heavy trucks out of the cheaper tariff group
On Friday, talks on a lower-tariff framework for vehicles fell apart over whether the relief would cover medium and heavy-duty classes. The framework under discussion would have cut the tariff on ordinary cars in the vehicle market to 15 per cent from 25 per cent. The disagreement covered Ford F-350 and larger super-duty pickups and the commercial classes above them, a group built at Ford's new Ontario plant. Flavio Volpe of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association said the US side pulled that classification out of the reduced-tariff group at the last moment. Mark Carney called the exclusion a big change.[1]
Carney says the country was attacked and sets 8 September duties
United States tariffs of 50 per cent on 20 billion dollars of Canadian goods took effect on Saturday. Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Ottawa that Canada was at war over trade, that the country had been attacked, and that it could not accept what Washington had offered. Carney said Ottawa would match the duties dollar for dollar from 8 September, with levies covering steel, dairy, appliances and electronics. Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, said his side acted after a year of Canadian countermeasures and that the interest at stake was American workers and supply chains.[2]
Trump says Canada wants a state's benefits as USMCA sits in doubt
In his first public comments since the talks collapsed, Donald Trump wrote that Canada wants the benefits of being a State without being one. He added that Canada had charged American farmers high tariffs for years. The escalation has put the USMCA pact, which governs about 2 trillion dollars of goods a year, back in question.[2]
