CNN
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A day after offering Canada a one-month reprieve on punishing nearly across-the-board 25% tariffs, President Donald Trump has threatened new tariffs as soon as Friday on Canadian lumber and dairy products.
“Canada has been ripping us off for years on lumber and on dairy products,” Trump said in an Oval Office address Friday, citing Canada’s roughly 250% tariff on US dairy exports to the country. Trump said America would match those tariffs dollar-for-dollar.
“We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday,” Trump said. “We’re going to charge the same thing. It’s not fair. It never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly.”
Stocks, which were lower to start the day after a mixed bag of a jobs report, initially fell after Trump’s tariff threat but pared their losses. The Dow was up about 45 points, or 0.1%. The broader S&P 500 fell 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down another 0.1% after falling into correction territory Thursday — a 10% decline from its most recent high.
Trump’s announcement gave investors, businesses and consumers another strong dose of whiplash. Just one day earlier, on Thursday, Trump announced a one-month pause on all tariffs on Canada and Mexico on products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada free trade treaty, known as the USMCA. That had given many industries, especially autos and agriculture, a major sigh of relief.
Canada charges exorbitant tariffs on certain dairy products, including a 241% tariff on milk, much to the consternation of America’s dairy farmers. In 2023, a trade dispute panel ruled in favor of Canada, arguing that the high import taxes did not violate the USMCA.
Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin lambasted the decision, arguing it was creating an undue burden on her state’s dairy industry.
“Wisconsin dairy farmers work hard every day to bring world class products to market, and they deserve a level playing field with their global competitors,” Baldwin said in the wake of the November 2023 decision. “This decision flies in the face of the agreement our country made with Canada and puts our Made in Wisconsin dairy products at a disadvantage.”
Trump has been criticizing Canadian tariffs on US lumber for several weeks, claiming America should respond in kind. He has claimed America can do without Canadian lumber.
An executive order Trump signed Saturday said America has an “abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs.” It’s not quite that simple, industry experts argue: They warn tariffs could end up increasing lumber and building costs — and even push up housing prices for consumers.
This is a developing story and will be updated.