President Donald Trump started a trade war against Canada by taxing timber imports for construction and threatening with similar measures against dairy products from the United States’ top trading partner.
Canada has been very hard on the United States. Everybody thinks that Canadians are nice, but for years they were smarter than our politicians . That’s why we imposed that great rate,
Trump said at an event at the White House.
After imposing rates on Canadian timber, he twitted a warning on his neighbor:
Canada has made business from our dairy farms in Wisconsin and other border states. Beware!
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replied that he would respond “firmly”.
Thanks to their association, also with Mexico, in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the United States and Canada have an annual commercial exchange of almost $ 545,000 million. However, Washington says it generates a deficit of $ 11.2 billion.
However, by attacking lumber for construction, Trump revives a dispute unleashed decades ago.
According to the US Commerce Department, Canadian imports of this type of wood reached $ 5.6 billion in 2016, which means that it will impose rates of 3.02% and 24.12%, depending on the products.
Alexandre Cusson, vice president of the Quebeq Union of Municipalities, estimated that the financial impact of that decision may exceed $ 200 million just in Quebec.