Move over “Lake America.” Donald Trump has opened a fresh front in his running battle with Canada, and this time the target is the drinks cabinet.
The US president on Tuesday escalated his trade war against Ottawa, banning imports of alcohol and other goods and hiking tariffs elsewhere, with the dispute showing no sign of cooling.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood firm, acknowledging that loosening economic ties with the United States would come at a cost but insisting the benefits would outweigh the pain.
A range of Canadian products, from mattresses to motorboats and golf carts, will face a 50% surcharge from 15 September, according to Trump’s executive order issued late Tuesday.
A separate import ban targeting various alcoholic beverages as well as dairy products such as whey will take effect on 29 September, under other executive orders issued at the same time.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs came into effect earlier on Tuesday, applying to C$27.6bn (€17.1bn) in US imports, including steel and aluminium products and dairy goods such as cheese, in response to duties Washington announced on 22 August.
Canada has “everything we need to pivot and prosper,” Carney said in a video address. “That pivot will come at a cost. There’s always a cost to action. But it doesn’t come close to the cost of standing still.”
Contracts on the chopping block
Responding to the latest Canadian levies, Trump pledged to bar Canadian companies from securing US government contracts.
In a social media post earlier on Tuesday, Trump said he was directing officials to “REMOVE Canadian-origin products” from the General Services Administration (GSA)’s Multiple Award Schedules programme for long-term contracts.
Such schedules account for more than $50bn (€43bn) a year in contracts, Trump added.
On Monday, Trump threatened to try to block sales of Canada’s Bombardier Aviation unless the Quebec-based planemaker moves manufacturing to the United States.
In response, the aerospace company pointed to the tens of thousands of jobs it has created across the US, with direct employment in more than 20 states, including Kansas, Texas, Arizona and California.
The two Republican senators representing Kansas said they had conveyed their concerns to the White House.
“I’m going to fight to keep Bombardier’s more than 1,200 Kansas jobs. I’ve already taken that concern inside the Oval Office,” Senator Roger Marshall posted on X, with Senator Jerry Moran posting similar comments.
US tariffs pose a modestly negative risk to Canada’s overall economy, analysts say, though the impact is sharper on central Canada’s manufacturing sector.
A war of memes and maps
“I don’t believe in escalating the conflict. That’s not constructive,” Carney said in his video statement on Tuesday. “But our tariffs are necessary to protect our workers, protect our companies, and protect our communities. This is about who we are as Canadians.”
Canada’s minister in charge of trade with the United States, Dominic LeBlanc, said late on Tuesday that Ottawa was “assessing the latest tariff measures”.
Negotiations between the two sides broke down on 21 August after days of talks in Washington.
At the time, Carney said US negotiators had introduced restrictions on Canadian trade deals with other countries at the eleventh hour, along with unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebec culture”.
Ottawa and Washington have not resumed talks since.
On Sunday, Trump posted an illustration of himself towering over Carney as they played ice hockey, captioned “Get up, governor” — a nod to his ambition to turn Canada into another US state.
In August, he also signed an order renaming Lake Ontario, on the border with Canada, as “Lake America,” sparking fury north of the border amid a broader wave of patriotism triggered by the US president’s hostility.
Although Carney is backed by Canadian public opinion, his country remains reliant on its neighbour with nearly 60% of Canada’s imports coming from the United States, and about 70% of its exports going to the US market.
Canada’s government has unveiled an aid package worth C$7.5bn (€4.65bn) to help businesses and workers weather the fallout.