WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump announced a new 50 percent tariff on additional Canadian goods this week, following threats to economically punish America’s northern neighbor over its handling of wildfire smoke crossing the border.
The Hill reports that the tariffs, based under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, apply to products ranging from “wine to hockey sticks to cement.”
“Over the past year, Canada has retained substantial retaliation against the United States as the U.S. imposes trade actions to reindustrialize, reshore, and support its manufacturing,” a senior administration official said on Monday. “Specifically Canada has to be held accountable for this continued discrimination.”
The announcement does not specifically reference Trump’s previous threat to “hol[d] Canada responsible” for “not properly maintaining their Forests,” resulting in almost 200 Ontario wildfires that over the past week have impacted air quality in several U.S. states. Section 338 requires offending countries to place a “burden or disadvantage upon the commerce of the United States.”
The 50 percent tariffs on the affected products would be on top of current 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum products, and 10 percent on softwood timber and lumber, and 12.5 percent for alleged inaction on goods made with forced labor.
Tariffs have been the signature economic policy of the second Trump administration, based on the president’s frequent assertion that most nations have been “ripping off” the United States for decades. Trade relations with Canada have been particularly contentious.
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump did not have the lawful authority to unilaterally issue most of his tariffs, which were justified on various “national emergency” grounds under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. As of July 1, the federal government has paid out $71.06 billion in tariff refunds with interest, or 41 percent of its total IEEPA obligations, and still owes $100.65 billion.
As for the new Canadian tariffs, whether they will withstand legal scrutiny remains to be seen. George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin argues that Section 338, which has not been invoked since the 1940s, “was long-ago superseded by new legislation enacted in 1962 and 1974, and is therefore defunct.”
The tariff question has sharply divided the political right. Trump and his populist allies argue that tariffs enrich America by forcing foreign countries to pay for the privilege of trading with the U.S., while more traditional economic conservatives argue that Americans ultimately pay for them through higher prices.
