Canadian prime minister suspends trade talks with U.S., setting new 50% tariffs in motion

Trade talks with Canada collapsed late Friday night, setting in motion steep 50% tariffs on a wide swath of Canadian goods. The duties come into effect at the stroke of midnight.

After weeks of talks, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that while important progress had been made, “that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians.”

“As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa,” Carney said in an emailed statement.

The tariffs impact about $20 billion worth of U.S. imports from Canada, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. The import taxes will hit everything from hockey sticks, to some building materials, liquors and certain kinds of clothing.

Carney says Canada will immediately retaliate against the U.S. “Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses,” he said.

The failure by American and Canadian trade negotiators to reach a deal came after nearly two weeks of furious talks.

Officials on both sides had seemed optimistic about a deal up until the very last moment. On Thursday, the Canadian minister responsible for U.S. trade relations met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer for several hours.

“We’re very close, we continue to make progress and we’re going to stay here and do the work that is necessary until we get to that point,” Dominic LeBlanc told reporters as he left Greer’s office late Thursday.

Canadian negotiators met again with their U.S. counterparts on Friday and talks stretched until the final hours of the day. But ultimately, the two sides were unable to reach a compromise.

As talks wore on this week, the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney faced some pushback from premiers of Canada’s provinces back home.

Manitoba premier Wab Kinew said the Canadian federal government should “fight” Trump.

A particular sticking point was a request from Carney to the provincial premiers to lift their bans on American alcohol sales.

Quebec premier Christine Fréchette said Thursday that she was still “analyzing” the request, CBC reported. Other premiers, such as Ontario’s Doug Ford — who leads the country’s most populous region — did not make any public remarks on Thursday or Friday.

The prime minister had previously said Trump’s threatened tariffs would amount to a “direct violation” of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump had negotiated and signed during his first term.