The United States has rewritten the list of Canadian goods that pay its 50% tariff. An order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday, 23 October, removes the duty from a set of farm, forestry and industrial products and applies it to a new set instead. The changes take effect on 30 October.
The swap does not reduce the scale of the dispute. The tariffs, imposed in August on about $20 billion of Canadian imports after trade talks collapsed, stay in place, and so do Canada’s matching counter-tariffs.
What changes
Coming off the list are plywood sheets, some paper products, certain machinery and refrigeration equipment, packing crates and boxes, and fresh and dried seaweed. Going on are carpets, paints, waste, shampoos, cocoa powder, wooden coffins, ice cream sticks, air-conditioning machines, chest freezers, archery equipment and canoes.
The relief tracks a request from Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican in a close re-election race, who said it would help her state’s blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed producers. Trump also dropped a threatened ban on Canadian jet maker Bombardier after pressure from Kansas lawmakers, according to the same report.
A challenge in court
Three days earlier, on 20 October, the Gellert Global Group, a family-owned New Jersey importer of Canadian cheese, sued at the US Court of International Trade. Represented by the Liberty Justice Center, which won the Supreme Court case against Trump’s earlier emergency tariffs, it argues that Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the Depression-era provision behind the Canada tariffs, has been superseded by later trade laws. The company is seeking to represent other affected businesses. The White House says it will defend the tariffs vigorously.
Swapping one product list for another changes who pays, not how much is at stake.
Where talks stand
Trump said on Friday that Canada is working on a deal. Canadian minister Dominic LeBlanc said Ottawa was assessing the change and stood ready to work towards a more mutually beneficial relationship. No date for renewed talks has been announced.
What to watch
- Whether Canada adjusts its own counter-tariff list after 30 October.
- The trade court’s first steps in the Section 338 case.
- The threatened rise in the US duty on Canadian vehicles to 50% on 1 January.
