Washington: US President Donald Trump announced today that his administration will impose a 35 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods starting next month.
Trump posted a letter sent to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on his social media platform, Truth Social, outlining the upcoming tariffs.
This week, Trump has posted letters to 14 countries vowing to impose steep tariffs on their imports starting Aug. 1.
Arguing that Canada had not done enough to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States, the President wrote, “If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter.” “These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country.”
In the letter, Trump wrote, “As you will recall, the United States imposed tariffs on Canada to deal with our nation’s Fentanyl crisis, which is caused, in part, by Canada’s failure to stop the drugs from pouring into our country. Instead of working with the United States, Canada retaliated with its own tariffs. Starting August 1, 2025, we will charge Canada a tariff of 35% on Canadian products sent into the United States, separate from all sectoral tariffs.”
In the letter, Trump wrote, “I must mention that the flow of fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many tariff, and non-tariff, policies and trade barriers, which cause unsustainable trade deficits against the United States. Canada charges extraordinary tariffs to our dairy farmers up to 400 per cent and that is even assuming our dairy farmers even have access to sell their products to the people of Canada. The trade deficit is a major threat to our economy and, indeed, our national security.”
“Goods transshipped to evade this higher tariff will be subject to that higher tariff. As you are aware, there will be no tariff if Canada, or companies within your country, decide to build or manufacture product within the United States and, in fact, we will do everything possible to get approvals quickly, professionally, and routinely-In other words, in a matter of weeks,” he added.
In the letter, Trump threatened to increase the tariff rate by the same amount if Canada decides to increase their tariffs on importing American products. He also targeted Canada’s tariffs on US dairy exports and called the trade deficit a major threat to the US economy and national security.
The US had previously imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods, though Trump later exempted products covered under the 2020 trade agreement struck between the US, Canada and Mexico.
“If Canada works with me to stop the flow of fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country. You will never be disappointed with the United States of America,” he wrote.
Trump has been reiterating his ambition of annexing Canada and making it the 51st state of the United States.
“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st State because we lose USD 200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” he said. “Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada?” Trump said during an interview to Fox news Channel.
Carney and other Canadian leaders have outrightly rejected that suggestion and asserted that the two nations work better together as partners.
UNI
