Canadian PM promises 'dollar-for-dollar' tariffs against US
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a nationally televised address on Saturday (22/8) to explain Canada’s position following the failure of trade negotiations with the United States, announcing that retaliatory ‘dollar-for-dollar’ tariffs worth US$20 billion (US$1 = Rp17,666) will be imposed by Ottawa from 8 September on American goods.
The Canadian Prime Minister said the retaliatory tariffs will cover various sectors, including dairy products, steel, household appliances, pulp and paper, and electronics.
The US and Canada failed to reach a trade agreement on Friday (21/8). The US then imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods worth US$20 billion on Saturday, effective just after midnight (11.00 WIB).
Explaining why negotiations collapsed at the last minute, Carney said that although both sides had earlier in the week come close to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement, the US side made last-minute changes that were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any agreement.
The repeated disregard by the US side for existing free trade agreements, such as the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), sends a bad signal to international companies and is ‘certainly not good news’ for renewing the agreement in the future, Carney warned.
The rift comes as the US, Mexico, and Canada are working to renew CUSMA, the trade agreement negotiated by Trump during his first term and once hailed as a success.
The US has begun formal negotiations with Mexico to revise the agreement, but negotiations with Canada have not yet started.
CUSMA is a trilateral trade pact that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) when it took effect on 1 July 2020. On 1 July 2026, the US officially declined to renew the agreement for the next 16-year term, triggering an annual review process until the pact expires in 2036.
When asked why Canada is engaged in a trade dispute, Carney said firmly, ‘Because we are under attack.’
Carney reiterated his confidence in the resilience of the Canadian economy, noting that Canada is currently creating jobs four times faster than the US, with foreign direct investment reaching its highest level in 20 years.
‘Canada is becoming stronger and increasingly less dependent on America,’ he said.