By Promit Mukherjee
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a Monday evening statement that retaliatory tariffs on the United States would take effect at 12:01 a.m.(0501 GMT) Tuesday in response to U.S. tariffs.
U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said the U.S. would proceed with 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods and 10% duties on Canadian energy products from March 4 after a one-month reprieve expired.
Trudeau said in the statement tariffs on C$30 ($20.80 billion) of U.S. imports would take effect immediately, and more tariffs could follow. The retaliation amount was the same as in the February announcement, though he did not give details on which goods would be impacted.
Below are details of the plan Canada announced last month.
RETALIATORY TARIFFS
Canada will impose 25% tariffs on C$30 billion in goods imported from the U.S. effective immediately. The duties will remain in place until the U.S. eliminates its tariffs against Canada. The counter measures do not apply to goods already in transit.
The C$30 billion is a part of an overall retaliatory measure targeting C$155 billion worth of goods imports from the U.S., with the remaining C$125 billion coming into force after a 21-day consultation period.
PRODUCTS
The first tranche of retaliation includes a list of 1,256 products such as orange juice, peanut butter, wine, spirits, beer, coffee, appliances, apparel, footwear, motorcycles, cosmetics, and pulp and paper.
The cost of imports associated with some of the major products are cosmetics and body care worth C$3.5 billion, appliances and other household items worth C$3.4 billion, pulp and paper products of C$3 billion, plastic products worth C$1.8, billion among others.
SECOND TRANCHE
The government will be consulting the public and stakeholders for a second tranche of retaliatory tariffs which will include a wide range of products imported from the U.S. such as passenger vehicles and trucks, electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, fruits and vegetables, aerospace products, beef, pork, and dairy.
NON TARIFF MEASURES
Trudeau has also said Canada is considering non-tariff retaliatory measures potentially relating to critical minerals, energy procurement and other partnerships. His energy minister has said an export tariff on critical minerals is one option.
SUPPORT
The government will also take steps to mitigate the impact of its tariff countermeasures on Canadian workers and businesses, the finance ministry has said.
It will establish a remission process to consider requests for relief from the tariffs imposed as part of Canada’s immediate response, as well as any future tariff actions, it said.
($1 = 1.4426 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Shri Navaratnam)
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