Following a trickle of trade revelations this week, President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening that he intends to levy 35-percent duties on the nation’s northern neighbor beginning Aug. 1.
The president’s letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney revived a familiar complaint about Canada’s “failure to stop the drugs”—fentanyl—from flowing into the United States, a sticking point for Trump that pushed the escalation of trade tensions between the two countries earlier this year. Trump also decried Canada’s retaliation against U.S. tariff threats with its own duties, as well as its steep tariffs on American agricultural products.
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Like other letters released since Monday, the missive included a warning against the transshipment of goods from other countries. Trump wrote that if Canada decides to implement its own duties on the U.S., that tariff rate will be stacked upon the 35 percent announced this week.
The European Union also appears to be in the president’s crosshairs once again, as a deal has yet to be reached with the 27-member trade bloc despite repeated and increasingly desperate overtures from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other European trade officials. On Thursday evening, Trump told NBC News that he plans to impose blanket duties on most nations that haven’t yet reached a consensus with U.S. trade negotiators.
“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20 percent or 15 percent. We’ll work that out now,” he said. He added that he believes the tariffs have been well-received thus far, pointing to stock market performance, which closed at record highs on Thursday.
However, S&P 500 futures slipped 0.5 percentage points following the president’s evening announcement.
