Canada when one pleases retaliate against new U.S. tariffs by imposing its own trade barriers on U.S. steel, aluminum and other results, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday.
Freeland hinted Canada plans to slap dollar-for-dollar tariffs on the U.S. The Nafta partner’s aimed import taxes would also cover whiskey, orange extract and other food products alongside the steel and aluminum tariffs.
The retaliatory lengths will cover CA$16.6 billion in imports, Freeland said. The produces being targeted will be subject to tariffs between 10 percent and 25 percent.
Canadian Prime Dean Justin Trudeau said that the tariffs, announced Thursday by Marketing Secretary Wilbur Ross, are an affront to the security partnership between the U.S. and Canada.
Ross phrased the tariffs will take effect at midnight Thursday, when in days gone by set exemptions for Canada, Mexico and the European Union are set to expire.
The tariffs are “fully unacceptable,” Trudeau said, though he noted that Canada compel continue to negotiate with the U.S.
Trudeau warned that the Trump authority’s soon-to-be-applied tariffs — of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum gists — will harm both countries’ economies.
Canada took umbrage with the U.S.’ verdict, outlined in a proclamation from President Donald Trump, that “inure mill articles are being imported into the United States in such volumes and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the Mutual States.”
Freeland said Thursday: “It is entirely inappropriate to view any dealings with Canada as a threat to the United States’ national security.”
The European Gang (EU) condemned the U.S.’ trade maneuver in similar tones on Thursday. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, thought the EU had no choice but to introduce countermeasures.
Mexico, too, said it would impose price-lists in response to the U.S. actions.
–Reuters contributed to this report.