Canada’s government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, has approved retaliatory customs duties ranging from 15% to 50% on hundreds of categories of US products. Bloomberg reports that the import tariff on a wide range of US steel goods was raised from 25% to 50%, and new restrictions also target consumer items, including motorcycles, cosmetics, and cheeses. The move is a direct response to Washington’s August 1 imposition of 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian imports: Ottawa has enacted mirror measures on a comparable volume of US goods, hoping that a tough stance against Donald Trump’s protectionism will strengthen the country’s bargaining position.

Industry experts predict Canada’s tougher tariffs will most severely hit US exporters in key industrial states such as Ohio and Michigan, which run extensive cross‑border businesses with Canada and face contentious midterm elections in November. Republican Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan warned that the tariff dispute is driving sharply higher costs and growing uncertainty for local manufacturers, hitting the deeply integrated auto‑sector supply chains hardest.

Although Carney had rolled back many counter‑tariffs from the Justin Trudeau era a year ago, the new escalation has forced Ottawa back to drastic measures despite White House warnings against reciprocal steps (previously, only Canada and China had taken such actions). As Brian Clow, a former senior adviser to the Canadian prime minister on US trade, explained, the countermeasures aim to make American businesses and voters struggle with the costs of a trade war so Washington will return to the negotiating table. “Canada is imposing these duties not because it wants a trade war, but because it wants it to end,” the politician said.