President Trump orders 50% tariffs on select Canadian goods

[00:00:00]But first, US President Donald Trump is turning up the pressure on Canada. The White House says it will impose a 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods next month, responding to retaliatory trade measures like the restrictions on American alcohol. The order signed by Trump yesterday also challenged Canada's dairy import system and vehicle export limits. Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa is now looking at all options to respond. Tessa Bena joins us live in studio with latest on the trade escalation. Tessa.

[00:00:30]>> Manissa, President Trump intends to use section 338 of the Trade Act, which allows the US to impose tariffs without congressional involvement, to target countries that discriminate in trade against Washington.

[00:00:43]>> I spoke with President Trump earlier this morning.

[00:00:47]We agreed to intensify negotiations in the coming weeks and the team and myself look forward to doing that.

[00:00:54]>> Prime Minister Mark Carney says he's working to take trade talks up a notch in the wake of the new threat from US President Donald Trump.

[00:01:01]>> We will look at all options in terms of how we would respond if they do come into effect.

[00:01:07]That's part of what we'll be discussing with premiers.

[00:01:11]Also in parallel as I just said that I spoken with the president, we agreed to intensify discussions. We'll begin that right away.

[00:01:19]>> Carney told reporters he spoke with Trump over the phone one day after the US once again threatened Canada with punishing tariffs.

[00:01:27]Trump announced late in the day Monday a plan to apply a 50% tariff on multiple Canadian goods covering a diverse array of items from honey to hockey sticks starting in a month because of Canada's retaliatory tariff measures. He's using a section of the 1930 Tariff [music] Act to do it, something no other US president has done before.

[00:01:46]>> This is unprecedented. Section 338 of the Tariff Act allows the president to issue a proclamation to effectively impose a tariff on another country or the products of another country where he believes that that country has discriminated against US trade and commerce.

[00:02:05]>> Under Section 338, the maximum tariff rate that can be imposed is exactly what Trump plans to apply, 50%. Trump suggested a new wave of tariffs could be coming last week during the height of the wildfire smoke trouble, but clarified today these specific levies have nothing to do with that.

[00:02:22]>> The Canada tariffs, what are those a response to the wildfires in >> No, no, no. That's separate. We're looking at that separately.

[00:02:29]>> And what is there anything Canada >> in response to the way they've treated our farmers and our people. Yeah, Canada's been very, very tough on us over the years over for many years and no other president's done anything about it.

[00:02:42]>> KPMG Law's national leader, Lachlan Wolfer, says this is the storm before the calm and says it's reminiscent of a stunt the president pulled early last year that brought [music] Canada and Mexico to the negotiating table quickly.

[00:02:56]>> Very much feels like the same thing all over again, which is you get [music] a surprise, a bit of a shock, no one saw this coming.

[00:03:03]You have a 30-day period where he tries to bring parties to the negotiating table. I think Prime Minister Carney has signaled today a willingness to progress the negotiations towards a new trade deal with the United States with a view to leveraging an urgency about it to bring about favorable outcomes for the US.

[00:03:24]>> The renewed concern over an all-out trade war comes as Canada, the US, and Mexico renegotiate the terms of the three countries' long-standing trade pact, leaving many people wondering how effective talks have been thus far.

[00:03:38]>> In all fairness to them, they need us to survive.

[00:03:41]Without us, there's no way they can survive. So, but they've been very, very tough over a period of the last 50 years, actually.

[00:03:51]>> Wolfer says this move by the Trump administration sends a message that will reverberate far beyond Canada.

[00:03:57]>> By the end of this week, the United States is likely to issue new tariff measures against nearly 60 of its major trading partners because the existing temporary tariffs come to an end >> [music] >> by the end of this week. And so, I I believe that the announcement against Canada is a shot across the bow towards other countries with further tariff measures to be announced during the course of this week.

[00:04:24]>> This latest escalation is now expected to dominate this week's meeting of Canada's premiers in Charlottetown, where the trade dispute is already high on the agenda.