Canada has announced it will impose 25% tariffs on tens of thousands of cars imported from the US.
The measure is a response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, which went into effect on April 3.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced "25 per cent duties on all vehicles imported from the United States that do not meet CUSMA requirements," using the Canadian acronym for the existing North American Free Trade Agreement.
The duties on 35.6 billion Canadian dollars ($25.3 billion) worth of US vehicles will take effect in the coming days, his office told AFP.
The Canadian duties will affect cars and light trucks that are made with less than 75 percent North American parts. That's roughly 10% of all vehicles shipped from the US to Canada, or about 67,000 vehicles a year.
Canada was largely spared from the sweeping global tariffs Trump announced on April 2, as Washington granted an exemption for goods eligible under the U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement covering most products.
But Canada, which is one of America's biggest trading partners, still faces tariffs on steel, aluminum and other products, in addition to duties on cars.
Carney said Trump's trade war "will tear apart the global economy."
"The system of global trade founded in the United States that Canada has relied on since the end of the Second World War is over," Carney said.
"The 80-year period in which the United States assumed the mantle of global economic leadership, forged alliances based on trust and mutual respect, and advocated the free and open exchange of goods and services is over," the prime minister added. He called this development a "tragedy".
Earlier, Ottawa imposed retaliatory tariffs on C$30 billion worth of U.S. consumer goods and nearly C$30 billion worth of U.S. steel and aluminum imports into Canada.
Carney and Trump spoke by phone last week. They agreed that Washington and Ottawa should negotiate the future of bilateral trade after Canada's April 28 election. | BGNES
