U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Canada has been “ripping off” the United States for years with tariffs on lumber and dairy products and threatened to place reciprocal tariffs on Canada immediately.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the “tremendous tariffs” Canada imposes on U.S. dairy and lumber products made it impossible for the U.S. to sell its products in Canada. He said unless Canada agrees to drop them, he would impose the same tariff on Canada.
Trump on Thursday delayed for four weeks his new 25% tariffs on most Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States. He said he delayed Mexico’s tariffs after hearing directly from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum who said her government had helped curb the flow of migrants and the deadly opioid fentanyl into the U.S.
One day earlier, Trump announced he was pausing the tariffs on vehicle imports from the two countries after the three biggest U.S. automakers said the tariffs would have a severe financial impact on them.
Trump said Friday, “India charges us massive tariffs” and that the U.S. could not sell anything in India. India’s Foreign Ministry announced Friday, however, that it was working on a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. that would “reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries.”
