In Canada’s strongest trade action since the Second World War, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s counter-tariffs against the United States will come into effect on Sunday.
The $16.6-billion worth of tariffs will go into place July 1, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration imposing duties on U.S. steel and aluminum imports from Canada, and will stay in place until the steel and aluminum restrictions are removed.
Though the initial list of proposed items to be hit with tariffs may have seemed scattershot at first – including a wide range of consumer items from toilet paper to ballpoint pens, to maple syrup – the retaliatory tariffs have been designed to hit Trump where it hurts.
Targeting industries that make up significant portions of the economies of the states that support Trump and other prominent Republican and Democrat party figures, the tariffs look to exert political pressure on notable decision makers to try and bring about an end to the trade war.
Canada is one of the most notable trading partners for most U.S. states, with only four states exporting less than $10 million of products that will be subject to the retaliatory tariffs.
Some of the states set to be hit hardest by Canada's tariffs, based on how much of the targeted consumer products they shipped north in 2017 include:
- Ohio -- $1.3 billion
- New York -- $1.2 billion
- Illinois -- $1 billion
- Wisconsin -- $903 million
- Pennsylvania -- $761 million
- Washington -- $688 million
- California -- $635 million
- Michigan -- $573 million
- Tennessee -- $517 million
There is a clear trend evident in the states that are targeted – many are states that swung to support Trump in the 2016 election, while others are states with politicians who have already been outspoken about the Trump administration’s trade policies.
With many already concerned about the effect the tariffs could have on jobs, the move increases pressure on U.S. politicians to push back against Trump’s economic policies.
Ohio, which swung to support Trump after voting Democrat in the previous two elections, is the hardest hit of all states with the tariffs targeting the industries that produce products like toilet paper, washing machines, candles and glue.
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky is another victim of the trade policy, with bourbon whiskey and boats in the crosshairs.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan was also targeted, with Wisconsin farmers already bracing for the sting of tariffs on cucumbers and gherkins, and yogurt.
The values of 2017 imports from U.S. for some of the products targeted by Canada’s preliminary tariffs include:
- Herbicides -- $1.13 billion
- Motorboats, rowboats, canoes and other pleasure boats -- $646 million
- Coffee, roasted -- $525 million
- Mayonnaise, salad dressing, mixed condiments -- $522 million
- Fungicides -- $418 million
- Ketchup and other tomato sauces -- $264 million
- Organic facewash -- $229 million
- Soups and broths -- $204 million
- Whiskey -- $62 million
- Maple sugar and maple syrup -- $17 million
- Ballpoint pens -- $3.5 million
With files from the Canadian Press
