As the trade war between the US and three major global players continues, President Donald Trump has threatened to hit Canada with a huge 250 percent tariff on specific grocery items.
Yesterday (March 7), the 78-year-old told reporters in the Oval Office that the nation's northern neighbor has been 'ripping us off for years' and is now considering hitting back with a tariff 10 times harsher than the 25 percent already placed on Canadian products.
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It came just a day after offering a one-month reprieve on the initial tax of imported goods.
“Canada has been ripping us off for years on lumber and on dairy products,” he said, as he explained Canada hold tariffs as high as 241 percent on dairy coming in from the US - although taxes have never been paid out as high as that as it comes down to whether a quota is hit from US dairy exports.
But they do so for a good reason, to protect its domestic dairy industry - although US dairy farmers believe that they are being treated unfairly by the Canadian government.
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After a trade dispute panel established under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ruled in Canada’s favor to uphold the tariff, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin slammed the decision.
“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.," she said.
"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 now threatened to match Canadian tariffs.
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“We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday,” Trump told press yesterday (March 7). “We’re going to charge the same thing. It’s not fair. It never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly.”
However, Canadian trade minister Mary Ng hit back at claims her nation was 'ripping off' the US, labeling them as 'not true'.
“I learned about it just as I was walking into this press conference,” Ng told the press. “These tariffs if imposed in that order of magnitude is completely unjustified.”
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Touching on the vast, yet intermittent, changes he's enforced and paused, he added: "There’ll always be some modifications. If you have a wall in front of you, sometimes you have to go around the wall instead of through it."
Joe Yates