A temporary exemption that is torn. Prime Minister Mark Carney, chosen on April 28 on the promise that he was going to face the American neighbor, had established customs tariffs in billions of dollars of imports from the United States, in response to those established by Donald Trump.
During the electoral campaign, automobile manufacturers were offered a break, provided they maintain their production and investments in Canada.
This measure was announced on May 7 at the Canada Gazette, the official government magazine. At the same time, a rest has been established in customs tasks on the products used in the transformation and packaging of food and beverages, health, manufacturing industry, national security and public safety.
In the end, the exemptions cover so many categories of products that the analysts of the specialized firm Oxford Economics estimated in a report published this week that the customs duties applied to the United States were returned to “almost zero.”
Canada, a country of 41 million inhabitants, sends three quarters of its exports to the United States, and the customs duties imposed by Trump are already harmful to the Canadian economy, according to the latest labor report.
Donald Trump imposed general customs tasks of 25% and sectoral taxes on the car, steel and aluminum in Canada, but suspended some of them on pending negotiations.
A political debate
The opposition leader, curator Pierre Hairy, did not stop understanding the Oxford Economics report to accuse Mark Carney of “discreetly brought customs to ‘almost zero’ without telling anyone.”
“Falsehoods”, according to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne. “Canada has retaliates to US prices with the greatest response in its history,” “70% is still in force,” He wrote in X.
Canada’s response to customs tasks “has been calibrated to respond to the United States while limiting economic damage to Canada,” added his office on Sunday to AFP.
Price relief has been granted for a six -month period to give certain Canadian companies “more time to adjust their supply chains and become less dependent on US suppliers,” said Audrey Milette, spokesman for the minister.
Canada continues to apply customs tasks in around $ 43 billion Canadian dollars (31 billion dollars) of US products, he said.
American-Canadian meeting
Mark Carney and American vice president JD Vance met Sunday in Rome to discuss commercial relations between their respective countries, after having attended the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican.
According to a press release from Mark Carney’s office, they talked about “immediate commercial pressures and the need to build a new economic and security relationship.”
In a brief statement, JD Vance talked about a “relaxed meeting” on the interest and common objectives of the two countries, “including fair trade policies.”
Source: BFM TV
