Canada hits back with dollar-for-dollar tariffs on US goods

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Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday announced that the country would impose its own tariffs on United States’ goods in retaliation to Washington D.C.’s steel and aluminium tariffs.

This comes hours after US President Donald Trump earlier announced that he will impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminium on three of US’ biggest trading partners – Canada, Mexico and the European Union (EU).

As reported by CNN, the said trade tariffs will come into effect from Friday midnight. The said trade-move would raise prices of a range of everyday products.

Trudeau slammed the move, calling it “unacceptable”.

In a series of tweets, the Canadian Prime Minister wrote, “American tariffs on Canadian aluminium & steel are unacceptable. As we have said, we will always stand up for our workers, and today we’re announcing retaliatory measures to this attack on our industry.”

Trudeau added that Canada would impose dollar for dollar tariffs on steel, aluminium and other products.

“Canada will impose tariffs against imports of steel, aluminium, and other products from the US – we are imposing dollar for dollar tariffs for every dollar levied against Canadians by the US,” Trudeau wrote in his second tweet.

He further said that the retaliatory tariffs would only be applied to US goods and would come into effect from July 1.

Trudeau stated that the tariffs would remain in place unless the US removed its own set of tariffs.

“These countermeasures will only apply to goods originating from the US and will take effect on July 1, and will remain in place until the US eliminates its trade-restrictive measures against Canada,” Trudeau wrote in his third tweet.

Continuing his tirade against the US tariffs, Trudeau said that Canada would challenge the same at the NAFTA and WTO in the interests of its workers and businesses.

“Canada will also challenge these illegal & counterproductive measures under NAFTA Chapter 20 and at the WTO. It is simply ridiculous to view any trade with Canada as a national security threat to the US and we will continue to stand up for Canadian workers & Canadian businesses,” the fourth tweet read.

Slamming the US administration for taking such a measure, the Canadian Prime Minister further said that Washington D.C. and Ottawa remained a partner, friend, and ally.

“Americans remain our partners, friends, and allies. This is not about the American people. We have to believe that at some point their common sense will prevail. But we see no sign of that in this action today by the US administration,” Trudeau wrote his fifth and last tweet.

25 percent tariffs will be imposed on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum, as told by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a press conference on Thursday.

Ross said, “We take the view that without a strong economy, you cannot have strong national security.”

Earlier in March, Trump had announced the said tariffs to be applicable worldwide while exempting Canada, Mexico and the EU but with his recent move, the three countries will now face the brunt of trade tariffs along with other countries.

Meanwhile, Canada, Mexico and the EU were negotiating with the United States to address the administration’s concerns about the state of domestic steel and aluminium production. Those negotiations had a Friday deadline.

Following the announcement, the Dow Jones indices fell about 200 points while the US Steel company climbed three per cent. (ANI)