The United States began collecting 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian imports at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after negotiators missed a midnight deadline, and Prime Minister Mark Carney said hours later that Canada would hit back with matching duties in September.
The duties cover wine, liquor, dairy products, cement, clothing, furniture, fishing rods and hockey equipment, CNBC reported. Energy, potash and critical minerals were left out. President Donald Trump imposed them under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a provision no president had used since it became law, according to Axios.
Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Saturday that Canada would respond on Sept. 8 with measures aimed at steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, NBC News reported. He said the American position hardened in the final days of the talks.
"They asked too much and offered too little," Carney said, according to CNBC.
He called the tariffs "a miscalculation," The Washington Post reported, and said Ottawa had been ready to lift its remaining duties on steel, aluminum and autos if Washington lowered its own. Asked why he sounded as though he were declaring war, Carney answered, "Because we were attacked," NBC News reported.
Both governments say the other walked away. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wrote shortly after midnight that Canada had "declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week," NPR reported. In a statement Friday night, Carney said late American revisions were "uneconomic, unfair" and cast doubt on any agreement, CNN reported.
The breakdown followed nearly two weeks of talks at the offices of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington. Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for U.S. trade, led the Canadian delegation. Trump had suspended the tariffs earlier in the week while negotiators worked, and said Friday afternoon that a deal was close.
Alcohol proved one of the hardest points. Canadian provinces pulled American spirits from store shelves in 2025 over earlier tariffs, and Carney asked premiers this week to put them back as part of a tentative framework. Canada's ambassador to the United States told a business council Thursday that restocking American liquor was a condition of any deal, CBC News reported.
Trade between the two countries reached $376 billion in the first half of the year, second only to Mexico and roughly double U.S. trade with China, Axios reported, citing Census data.
Carney said Ottawa would publish the details of its measures within days. The White House has not said whether talks will resume.