President Trump said he would pause a 50% tariff on certain goods from Canada for three days while the two countries seek to finalize an agreement.
"I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three-day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!" Trump said on social media Tuesday night.
The new 50% tariff was set to cover $20 billion worth of Canadian goods-about 5% of Canada's annual exports to the U.S.-ranging from hockey sticks and electronics to plastics and building materials.
In a separate post, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the deal would include improved market access for U.S. goods in Canada, along with "economic security commitments" and "alignment" on digital trade issues that have long divided the two countries.
The new tariffs, announced a month ago, would have risked escalation into a trade war between the North American neighbors. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who came to power last year by promising to stand up to Trump's economic aggression, has said that Canada could retaliate. His country has been one of the few-along with China-to strike back at past U.S. levies with tariffs of its own.
Carney's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration first threatened the latest round of tariffs last month, saying they would be imposed in response to Canada's provincial bans on American alcohol, protections for its domestic dairy industry and quotas and tariffs on some U.S. vehicles. Canada imposed many of those measures last year in retaliation for other tariffs that Trump imposed on the country.
Whether those irritants would be addressed remained unclear on Tuesday night, but Trump said the deal would address one of his longstanding gripes-the Keystone XL pipeline.
"The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!" Trump posted.
The proposed expansion of the pipeline, which had drawn opposition from American landowners, environmentalists and indigenous groups, has long been a sore spot in bilateral relations. The Canadian government had supported the project, which would have carried crude from western Canada to the U.S., but former President Joe Biden revoked a permit that Trump in his first term had issued for it to proceed.
Not long after, Canada's TC Energy Corp and Alberta's provincial government scuttled the pipeline. But Carney said last year that he and Trump had spoken during a meeting in Washington about opportunities for cooperation on energy projects between the two countries, including Keystone XL.
The tariff deal could also pave the way for new negotiations on reforming the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was negotiated in Trump's first term to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
That pact is now under annual review after the Trump administration declined to renew it in its current form, and the president has repeatedly floated withdrawing from the trilateral pact. While the U.S. has made steady progress in negotiations with Mexico, formal talks with Canada haven't been held.
The threat of new tariffs on Canadian goods spurred an intensification of talks, which had been largely stalled since the fall. In recent weeks, Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister in charge of U.S. trade, and Janice Charette, Canada's chief trade negotiator, met frequently with their counterparts in Washington to hammer out a deal to stave off the levies. Carney and Trump spoke twice by phone this week.
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