Carney, speaking in Ottawa on Saturday, said the new Canadian tariffs would target the U.S. steel, dairy and electronics industries, among others, and would take effect on Sept. 8.
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“Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families and businesses,” Carney told reporters.
The announcement came after days of intense negotiations ended Friday night, worsening a delicate relationship between the long-standing trade partners and allies.
US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs affect sectors such as wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, and cover goods worth about $20 billion, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the United States.
Carney said Trump set conditions that were ultimately unacceptable even though previous talks had been positive.
“In recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair and undermined net benefits to Canada, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Carney said, adding that these demands included limiting Canada’s ability to forge new trade deals.
“We cannot accept what they have offered us and we will not give them what they have asked for.”
He added that American negotiators also made unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebecose culture,” referring to the French-speaking province in eastern Canada.
No new talks planned
Carney is one of the few world leaders to have retaliated against US tariffs and pledged to forge new trade and military alliances, despite Canada’s dependence on the United States for nearly 70 per cent of its exports.
Canada will impose tariffs on U.S. steel, dairy, appliances, farm equipment, pulp and paper and electronics, along with some products the U.S. had previously targeted in Canada, Carney said from Ottawa’s Parliament building. The government will release details of its response in the coming days, he said.
Carney said Canada would announce support measures next week for industries affected by the new US tariffs, adding that these measures could last for years.
There was no immediate comment from the White House.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox News on Saturday that no new talks with Canada are planned.
“We are moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” Greer said. “They’ve always had the best deal and they would still have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.”
The new US tariffs are expected to have a major impact on Canada’s economy.
“Costs are going to go up, prices are going to go up, unemployment is going to go up,” said Al Jazeera’s David Mercer, reporting from the Canadian city of Calgary. “And it has been noticed that business owners – small [and] medium-sized companies, some of them will have to declare bankruptcy,” he stated.
At the same time, Mercer said, Carney is selling the trade war as an opportunity for Canada to strengthen its trade relationships with other countries.
“He’s been around the world, he’s been talking to countries in Asia and Europe, shoring up new trade relationships, wanting to diversify Canada’s economy and Canada’s trade relationships with other countries around the world just to get away from that dependence that Canada has traditionally had on the United States,” he said.
Public opinion polls in Canada show that a majority of Canadians support a “tougher approach” toward the United States in trade negotiations. A poll conducted by Leger last week said 56 per cent of Canadians favored a hard line and no more concessions.
‘Mistreatment’
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the staunchest opponents of US tariffs, supported Carney’s decision to retaliate.
“I’m glad he didn’t sign that deal because it was a bad deal. It was a bad deal for Ontario. It was a bad deal for the auto sector, the steel sector and the manufacturing sector,” Ford told reporters Saturday.
In Port Colborne, Ont., resident Stuart Edwards said the trade war was going to “hurt everyone” and “it’s just sad.”
“We have a bully in Washington, and he beats us all with his club all the time,” he said. “And we’re not going to stand for it; Canada won’t. We’re going to fight back.”
But Pamela Coulis, of Fort Erie in Canada, was concerned about rising prices.
“I think gas will probably go up even more, and all products, from food to, I don’t know, lumber, everything else,” he said.
Diamond Isinger, who served as special advisor to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said both countries will suffer the consequences of the trade war.
“It’s going to cause pain and challenges for both Canadians and Americans, in terms of the actions that, unfortunately, the United States has taken, as well as Canada’s retaliation. But ultimately, this was the way forward; this was the only realistic next step,” he said.
“Because the US administration responds best, of all the responses it could have, to all the actions that a government like Canada could take, to strengthen itself,” Isinger added.
“Therefore, we couldn’t just accept 50 percent tariffs in the future. We had to move forward with our own retaliation package.”
In the United States, the escalation of the trade war was met with anger from Democratic lawmakers and governors in border states such as Minnesota, New York and Washington, who blamed Trump for unleashing chaos that would increase costs for American businesses and families.
“Unnecessarily picking fights with our allies and raising prices here at home. That is Trump’s economic policy in a nutshell,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on X.
The Business Roundtable, a group of 200 CEOs of major American corporations, also warned that the new tariffs “risk increasing costs for American businesses and families” and urged both governments to resume negotiations.
