U.S President Donald Trump paused so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries today, which led to a surge in the stock markets. However, the Trump administration also boosted tariffs on Chinese, sparking further fears of a recession.
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8:36 p.m. Conservative conference in Ottawa opens with talk about Trump tariffs
A former member of the first Trump administration in Washington says the American leader’s chaotic approach to tariffs is “by design.”
Chad Wolf, who served in several political roles in the Department of Homeland Security during President Donald Trump’s first term, made the comment tonight as the opening speaker at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa.
The not-for-profit organization used to be known as the Manning Centre, and was founded by former Reform Party leader Preston Manning.
While the group says it’s non-partisan, the annual conference is also billed as a gathering of the conservative movement in Canada.
Wolf was asked what Trump wants from countries like Canada when it comes to trade and tariffs, and said chaotic Trump’s tariff tactics are a “business approach” that have worked well for the president.
7:52 p.m. Poilievre addressed Trump’s latest reversal at Brampton rally
“I have to address today’s latest disrespect by President Trump of our country,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told supporters in Brampton this evening. “While President Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for dozens of countries, he kept those tariffs in place on Canada. Take that in for a moment. Almost every country in the world got a pause on American tariffs. But not us, America’s best friend.”
Poilievre went on to criticize Liberal Leader Mark Carney for suggesting his recent phone call with the U.S. president was encouraging.
Pierre Poilievre holds a rally at the Embassy Grand Convention Centre and Banquet Hall in Brampton. April 9, 2025.
Steve Russell/Toronto Star The Star“Now, to be clear, I’m not blaming Prime Minister Carney for President Trump’s tariffs. These tariffs are uncalled for and unjustified, and no one can control this president. But that’s precisely the point. Prime Minister Carney is running his entire campaign on a false promise that he can control the president through magical, masterful negotiating techniques. Well, we know now that that is not true. Nobody can control this president.”
The Conservative leader also said he would quickly negotiate an “end to tariffs with protections for Canadian sovereignty as quickly as possible.”
6:38 p.m.
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed the understanding that no new tariffs have been landed on Canada, but he welcomed the 90-day pause on global reciprocal tariffs.
He posted a statement on X, saying “The pause on reciprocal tariffs announced by President Trump is a welcome reprieve for the global economy.”
Carney said he and Trump have agreed that whoever is prime minister after the April 28 vote will “commence negotiations on a new economic and security relationship immediately following the federal election.”
“As part of today’s announcement, the President has signalled that the U.S. will engage in bilateral negotiations with a number of other countries. This will likely result in a fundamental restructuring of the global trading system.
“In that context, Canada must also continue to deepen its relationships with trading partners that share our values, including the free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas.”
Carney then pivoted to a campaign statement, saying the election is “about who can best fight for Canadian families, workers, and businesses at the negotiating tables with the United States and other potential partner countries. The stakes have never been higher.”
“I am working hard to earn that responsibility to protect our country through this crisis and to build Canada strong.”
6:10 p.m. Did Donald Trump pause tariffs on Canada?
A PMO spokesperson says the Canadian government has not yet received official confirmation, but says that its current understanding is that there is no change for Canada, that no new tariffs were imposed on this country today, and no change to previously announced tariffs.
6:05 p.m.
In Ottawa at the conference that draws a lot of small-c and big-C conservatives, John Walsh, a longtime party strategist, asks Wolf how Canada can get back on track with the president regarding trade. “What is it you think he’s really looking for?” Walsh asks.
Wolf replied that Robert Lighthizer - the former US Trade Representative who will address this conference Friday - told him a couple of weeks ago that “if anyone tells you they know what is going on, they don’t know what is going on.”
A “chaotic approach”, Wolf says “is a feature not a bug” of the Trump Administration, and it is “by design.”
A chaotic business approach is an approach that worked well for Trump in the business world and in his first term, Wolf asserts, and urges people to go back and read Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal” saying it shows Trump’s belief that to reach a deal “there’s got to be some pain involved.”
Trump, Wolf says, is using tariffs for several reasons, to deal with the “fentanyl and human trafficking piece of it,” and to deal with trade imbalances, and to use them as a revenue raiser.
Asked what advice a new prime minister should take, and should they go in “elbows up” ready to fight, or “kiss the ring,” or a bit of both, Wolf says “yeah it’s all of the above.
Trump respects people who come to him demonstrating “strength” but not in the way Zelenskyy attempted to, says Wolf, but he says come with an action plan, and be prepared to deal with “Trump time.” He suggests Trump needs an action plan to be shown him, and proof of “results” or a plan to get there.
Wolf says for Trump, much depends on “relationships” and for whatever reason, Trump didn’t get along with the former prime minister, and he says that if Trump can “find a partner here” as he has when he found “partners in other parts of the world, you see different results. You’ll see a different attitude.”
5:37 p.m.
Chad Wolf, a former acting secretary of the U.S. department of homeland security, addressed an Ottawa conference of the Canada Strong and Free Network, formerly the Manning Network, on Wednesday.
Wolf, now with the American First Policy Institute, said most of what Trump is trying to do with his border actions deals with the southern border with Mexico, saying Canada is “a different topic, a different strategy.”
He said there have been “a lot of improvements” at the Mexican border, but he said with Canada, there is “an emerging issue along the US northern border, with our friends in Canada and so different set of problems there, different set of solutions.”
He noted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s visit last month to the U.S.-Canada border (that’s the one where she visited a library that is split by the border and stepped back and forth and was reported to have joked about the 51st state) was “a deliberate act” to draw attention to the northern border as an issue for the Administration.
Wolf says “some people” at the White House and at the departmental level have noticed actions taken by Canada to tighten border security, but he emphasizes that the fentanyl enforcement will continue to be an important concern for Trump and “this Administration will really lean into it.”
He acknowledges there are “different challenges” with Mexico and Canada, saying while he would “land harder on Mexico than I would Canada….I think that what the president and the team is looking at over time, historically over these past 4 to 5 years, is a growing problem along the northern border. And so they want to kind of address that before it becomes an even bigger issue.”
5:21 p.m.
Flavio Volpe, head of the Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said in an interview that Trump’s trade policy is like “taking a dumpster fire and gently flicking it into a black hole.”
Still, Volpe said, in the grand scheme of things, “nothing has changed for Canada at the moment.”
Trump’s steel, aluminum, and auto tariffs still apply, as do the border tariffs on non-CUSMA compliant goods. Meanwhile, Trump has paused U.S. tariffs until May 3 on auto parts so that the US Customs and Border Patrol can come up with process to enforce a tariff on auto parts.
“It’s business as usual, meaning it’s business as unusual,” said Volpe.
5:12 p.m.
Matthew Holmes, head of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said he’s getting a sense of déjà vu after Trump’s announcement of a pause on “reciprocal” tariffs.
“This is more of the same. The constant changing and shifting of deadlines, timelines and amounts,” said Holmes.
While taking a small measure of comfort that tariffs on Canada and Mexico continue to include some exceptions for goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, Holes said there’s still plenty of peril for Canadian businesses and the economy.
“The reality is that we’re moving from a very open and free-flowing marketplace to one that will be bureaucratic in nature,” said Holmes. “It will require all kinds of paperwork, documents and certification. As soon as you have something that’s very bureaucratic, there’s a risk for businesses.”
5:10 p.m. Trump’s ambassador to Canada confirmed in the middle of a trade war
Former Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new United States ambassador to Canada.
He will become America’s top diplomat in Ottawa in a fraught time in U.S.-Canada relations, with President Donald Trump hitting Canada with tariffs on automobiles, steel and aluminum and continuing to hold out the threat of economywide fentanyl-related duties.
While Trump has repeatedly claimed Canada should become a U.S. state, Hoekstra told his confirmation hearing that Canada is a sovereign country.
5:05 p.m.
Trump made the point in that Oval Office spray that “we’re going to put tariffs on the pharmaceutical companies and they’re going to all want to come back.”
He said, as he has in the past, that the U.S. wants to repatriate semiconductor chip manufacturing. He boasted tariffs he levied against dumping of steel by China saved the industry in America, and says “we don’t want it to go to Japan or any other place.”
And on Mexico, he says “not that we want to hurt Mexico…but it’s about America First.”
4:50 p.m.
It’s no coincidence the decision to pause the tariffs — reminiscent of earlier on-and-off tariffs against Canada and Mexico — came after several days of crashing markets, argued Saurin Patel, a finance professor at Western University’s Ivey Business School.
“I think it was a direct response to pressure from the markets and the public at large,” said Patel, who warned that markets could shift again just as quickly in the other direction. “This is a bizarre way of doing business, and it’s not the way you should be running a large economy.”
The pause, first announced by Trump on Truth Social, also comes after pressure from business executives and billionaire donors, said Paul Calluzzo, a finance professor at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business.
“Bill Ackman came out against the tariffs. Elon Musk was criticizing Pete Navarro. I think that played a role,” said Calluzzo. Ackman is a billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump donor, while Musk also donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign. Navarro has been a trade policy advisor during Trump’s second term.
Calluzzo scoffed at suggestions from White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt that Trump’s turn-around was a deliberate, clever bit of strategy.
“I would not describe it as a stroke of genius,” said Calluzzo, noting U.S. markets are still down almost 10 per cent on the year.
And, he warned, trade uncertainty will be part of world markets for the foreseeable future. , meaning hazardous times for investors.
“How much are we now pricing in a Trump risk premium because policy can swing just on the whim of one person?,” Calluzzo asked. “This uncertainty will be with us as long as this policy-making apparatus is still in place.”
4:48 p.m.
President Trump, now speaking in the Oval Office, says of EU retaliation “that’d be bad,” until Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hastens to tell him the EU has not moved immediately. By Trump’s side in the Oval Office is Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
“They didn’t put them in. No, they threatened, but they picked a later date, which our expectation is it’s going to be later still,” says Lutnick.
“I’m glad that they held back,” says Trump.
Trump is asked if he will meet or talk to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and he replies, “No. Sure. He’s a friend of mine. I like him, President Xi, I like him. I respect him,” but he goes on to complain that “we had to go to China to get drugs. We had to go to other places.”
He signals sectoral tariffs are still coming on pharmaceuticals.
Trump says that over the last few days he’d been “thinking about” pausing the tariffs and “it probably came together early this morning. We just wrote it up. We didn’t have access to lawyers or anything. We wrote it up from our hearts, right? It was written from the heart, and I think it was well written too.”
Trump admits no mistake, saying his decision on the pause today and on the China tariff of 125 per cent was “written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us, and we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate.”
The “problem” with tariffs, he suggests is that “you can only do so many at one time.”
“We want to get it right. We want to take care of them, but we have to take care of our country.”
He said “we decided to pull the trigger, how we did it today, and we’re happy about it. I didn’t know would have that kind of an impact, but it’s the biggest increase in the history of the stock market. That’s pretty good. That’s pretty normal. If you keep going, you’d be back to where it was four weeks ago, but it was a sick market four weeks ago.”
Watch as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office.
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4:45 p.m.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries for 90 days — except China — sent stock markets soaring Wednesday.
In Toronto, the S&P TSX composite index bounced back and forth between loss and gain in early trading, but took off as soon as news of the pause became public shortly after 1 p.m.
By market close its was up 5.4 per cent adding roughly $200 billion in value.
Stocks in New York were also mixed at the opening, then took off like a rocket in the early afternoon.
By the time markets closed, the broad-based S&P 500 was up 9.5 per cent, the Dow Jones industrial average 7.9 per cent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 12.6 per cent.
The S&P alone gained almost $4 trillion in value, its biggest one-day rise since the Second World War.
4:13 p.m. Stock markets boomerang as Trump announces a 90-day pause on tariffs — except for China
Stock markets soared in afternoon trading as U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs, and slashed the rates of others — even as the trade war with China escalated.
In Toronto, the TSX composite index bounced back and forth between loss and gain several times, but took off as soon as news of the pause became public shortly after 1 p.m.
By 2:15, the TSX was up nearly five per cent on the day.
Stocks in New York were also mixed at the opening, then took off in the early afternoon.
By 2:15 p.m., the S&P was up eight per cent, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 6.7 per cent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 9.7 per cent.
The wild ride follows four straight days of big market losses.
4:10 p.m.
Numerous media reports including Bloomberg and CBC say that Canada is not newly subject to the 10 per cent baseline tariff.
3:42 p.m. U.S. senate confirmed Trump’s choice of Pete Hoekstra as U.S. ambassador to Canada
Today the U.S. senate confirmed Trump’s choice of Pete Hoekstra as U.S. ambassador to Canada, and Hoekstra thanked the president for the job “at this important time in the U.S.-Canada relationship.”
Hoekstra, who was previously ambassador to the Netherlands, and was a Michigan representative for 18 years, was full of flattery for Canada.
His statement stands in stark contrast to his boss’s frequent blasts of Canada as an “unfair” trading partner, and a “nasty negotiator.”
Hoekstra’s official statement issued by the embassy says, “Canada is our most valuable trading partner, our largest source of foreign investment, and our largest source of energy imports. We share the longest border in the world – more than 5,500 miles, fostering longstanding friendships between the American and Canadian people.
“As Ambassador to Canada, I will work with the Canadian government to review and strengthen our strong trading partnership, secure our borders, confront the deadly threat of fentanyl to our citizens, and build our national security cooperation.”
3:38 p.m. The Canadian government continues to try to seek clarity. A finance department official said “We are aware of recent comments from the U.S administration. We will have more to say once the details of the decisions are known and we have assessed the content and impacts.”
3:24 p.m. Trump says on tariffs and the economy, “it wasn’t sustainable. It was happening. Somebody had to pull the trigger and I was willing to pull the trigger. They should have been done long ago.”
But the president denies he is losing credibility after saying earlier there would be no pause. “It’s not a question of that,” and casts his actions as merely showing flexibility.
“And I think the word would be flexible. You have to be flexible. Like he’s asking the question about some companies, some companies, through no fault that they don’t happen to be in an industry that is more affected by these things than others. You have to be able to show a little flexibility. And I’m able to do that.”
3:15 p.m. Trump says he didn’t have time in his first term “to do the big thing” that he is doing now. He continues to list usual complaints sur China, about Biden Administration, lax borders that let drugs and migrants in.
Trump says he had the “guts” to do tariffs and “it even takes guts” from the country to go through tariffs and “a little bit of conditioning” to go through it.
3:11 p.m. Trump speaks from the White House on tariffs
Trump, speaking from the White House lawn, says he’s “reversed” tariffs and put a 90-day pause on “the people who didn’t retaliate.”
“A deal’s gonna be made with China. A deal’s gonna be made with everyone,” says Trump, recalling how he’s been talking about tariffs for decades.
2:11 p.m. Canada seeking clarity on how latest Trump announcement applies to Canada
The Prime Minister’s Office is similarly looking for answers and clarity on how this all applies to Canada, a spokesperson told the Star. “We will react once we have the facts,” said Emily Williams.
–Tonda MacCharles
1:58 p.m. S&P 500 soars 7% after Trump announces 90-day pause on tariffs, raises taxes on China
Facing a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days but raised his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
The S&P 500 was up 7.8% in afternoon trading. It had been down earlier in the morning amid worries about Trump’s trade war and whether it would cause a recession, as economists fear. But it spiked immediately after Trump sent the social media posting that investors have been waiting for. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2,476 points, or 6.6%, as of 1:35 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 9% higher.
—Associated Press
1:45 p.m. Message on Canada, Mexico unclear
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is explaining that China will get 125 per cent tariffs and that 75 countries are coming to seek accommodations. “Every country in the world wants to come and negotiate and we are willing to hear you.” Bessent says that countries other than China will be set at the 10 per cent baseline tariff, and the pause appears to apply to the higher individualized assessed tariff per country.
In answer to a question about whether the 10 per cent applies to Mexico and Canada, he said “yes.” But that appears to be in contradiction to last week’s treatment that did not put baseline or reciprocal tariffs immediately on Mexico and Canada particularly for goods that comply with the continental free trade pact. Trump’s 25-per-cent “border tariffs” apply to Mexico and Canada only to goods that are not CUSMA-compliant).
Bessent says each country will require a “separate bespoke negotiation.” He said last week, the markets did not understand this was part of a negotiation with each country based on their tariffs and nontariff barriers.
The pause applies only to reciprocal tariffs, he said, in answer to a question about whether there is also a pause for lumber and other tariffs.
Bessent says the markets will see the ”willingness of 75 countries to come and negotiate” and see last week’s reciprocal tariffs as “a ceiling.” He adds the U.S. will negotiate “in good faith, and we assume our allies will too.”
Bessent said, “we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate.” He repeats that China does not get the 90-day pause others will receive, and China has “shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors.” But Bessent denies any moves on the bond market drove today’s pause, and says the U.S. had “quite a good 10-year auction” on treasury bonds today.
The message on Canada and Mexico is very unclear at the end of this. Canada has retaliated, as we know. So has the EU.
Nevertheless, despite Bessent’s claim that it demonstrates the brilliance of the president’s strategy, the 90-day pause is a major reversal, and appears to be calming markets.
–Tonda MacCharles
(Updated) 1:30 p.m. Trump pauses tariffs on most nations for 90 days, raises taxes on Chinese imports
WASHINGTON—Facing a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, but raised his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to one between the U.S. and China.
Global markets surged on the development, but the precise details of Trump’s plans to ease tariffs on non-China trade partners were not immediately clear.
—Associated Press
12 p.m. Forget 2008 and COVID. This man-made financial crisis features a rogue president wielding a flame-thrower
An arsonist is on the loose, torching markets.
As a result, this Trump-induced tariff and trade calamity could be worse than the global financial crisis because rather than helping solve a crisis, he’s created and escalated one.
The shutdown of economies in 2020 due to COVID-19 aside, this chaos could last longer and be more financially damaging than the devastating banking crisis which began in August 2007, peaked in September 2008 and persisted into 2009.
The latter was the result of a massive buildup of bad debts. Those debts were rooted in millions of low-quality, “subprime” American mortgages, buried in opaque, “innovative” financial products sold worldwide.
Global banks, holding these bonds stuffed with subprime mortgages, stopped trusting one another in the short-term lending market which was vital to them. The bond market froze. Liquidity dried up. Stock markets tanked everywhere.
10:30 a.m. Trump promotes investing in U.S. as a solution to higher tariffs
Trump says tariffs will be “ZERO” for companies that come back to America.
“This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America,” the Republican president wrote on his social media site as he continues defending the sweeping global tariffs he announced last week that have since roiled the stock market.
U.S. stock futures were sinking again in premarket trading on Wednesday after massive U.S. tariffs against China kicked in overnight, followed by China retaliating with a huge tariff increase on U.S. imports.
10:00 a.m. Stock markets ricochet as Trump tariffs kick in and China retaliates
In Toronto, the TSX composite index bounced back and forth between a loss and a gain three times within the first 20 minutes of trading, but was down by a third of a percentage point by 9:50 a.m.
Stocks in New York were also mixed, with the S&P 500 up by 0.4 per cent, the Dow Jones industrial average hovering just above breakeven, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ up by 1.3 per cent.
Overnight, markets in Asia were mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell by just under four per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng see-sawed, but ended trading up by 0.7 per cent.
Shipping containers are seen at the port in Keelung on April 9, 2025.
I-HWA CHENG AFP via Getty Images The Star9:15 a.m. Customers of grocery stores selling imported foods brace for price hikes
Loyal customers of Asian supermarkets and other grocery stores that specialize in selling imported food heaved a collective sigh of dismay when President Donald Trump announced extra-high U.S. tariffs on goods from dozens of countries.
What would happen to prices at 99 Ranch Market and H Mart?, wondered Asian Americans and immigrants who shop at the two American chains for preferred brands like Japan’s Kewpie mayonnaise and China’s Pearl River light soy sauce.
The steeper tariff rates Trump set for imports from nations he accused of unfair trade practices took effect first thing Wednesday along with a 10% baseline tax on products from the rest of the world.
Several countries in Asia have some of the largest levies, including South Korea (25%), Vietnam (47%) and Cambodia (49%). After China approved counter-tariffs and said it would fight a U.S. trade war “to the end,” the president on Tuesday raised the rate on Chinese goods to 104%.
8 a.m. Canada adds more retaliatory tariffs as Trump’s trade war hits the world
WASHINGTON—Canada amped up its retaliatory measures against Donald Trump’s tariffs today as the United States president brought his trade war to the world.
A 10 per cent baseline tariff on imports to the U.S. from most countries, and higher duties on dozens of nations, came into force just after midnight following days of turmoil in global markets.
While Canada isn’t being targeted by Trump’s global tariffs, the country is being hit by U.S. automobile, steel and aluminum tariffs and still faces the ongoing threat of economywide fentanyl-related tariffs.
Ottawa added to its retaliatory measures today in response to the automobile duties by implementing similar tariffs on vehicles imported from the United States.
Unlike the American duties, Canada will not tariff auto parts or Mexican vehicles and components.
7:57 a.m. Many Canadians and Americans are angry about U.S. tariffs: poll
OTTAWA–A new poll suggests that a large number of both Canadians and Americans feel angry about U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on imports.
The Leger poll, which surveyed a sample of 1,631 Canadians and 1,011 Americans between April 4 and 7, suggests that the announcement of new tariffs by Trump on April 2 sparked strong emotional reactions on both sides of the border.
Fifty-seven per cent of Canadian respondents and 33 per cent of Americans said they feel “angry” about the latest round of tariffs. Thirty-two per cent of Canadian respondents and 27 per cent of Americans said they feel “anxious.”
7:51 a.m. Futures points to more losses for U.S. stock markets, Asian and European markets down
The futures market suggested more losses were in store for U.S. stock markets when trading begins this morning as U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs went into full effect.
Stock markets in Asia and Europe were down as the latest set of U.S. tariffs, including a 104 per cent charge on Chinese imports, came into force.
China has responded by raising its retaliatory tariff on the U.S. to 84 per cent, up from 34 per cent, effective April 10.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, on April 4, 2025.
AFP via Getty The Star(UPDATED) 7:39 a.m. China raising its retaliatory tariff on the U.S. to 84%
BEIJING—China has raised tariffs on American goods to 84% to match Trump’s addition of a 50% tariff, while adding an array of additional countermeasures Wednesday.
The 84% tariff will go into effect Thursday, and comes as a 104% tax on the country’s exports to the U.S. came into effect.
“If the U.S. insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end” the Ministry of Commerce wrote in a statement introducing the white paper.
The government declined to say whether it would negotiate with the White House, as many other countries have started doing.
Trump’s 104% tariff on China goes into effect
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on energy production in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The StarAs promised, the Trump administration has implemented additional tariffs worth 50 per cent on imports from China, totalling a combined levy of 104 per cent on Chinese goods.
These new taxes are on top of the 20 per cent tariffs announced as punishment for fentanyl trafficking and his separate 34 per cent tariffs announced earlier. Not only could this increase prices for American consumers, it could also give China an incentive to flood other countries with cheaper goods and seek deeper relationships with other trading partners.
What you need to know about Canada’s 25% surcharge on American goods
It may be time to consider bidding adieu to the time-honoured tradition of the Trader Joe’s day trip.
With Canadians facing a 25 per cent surcharge on most American goods brought back over the border, a weak exchange rate, and the threat of scrutiny by U.S. border agents, the once-beloved pastime may no longer be worth the trouble.
The 25 per cent surcharge, in effect since March 4, was introduced by Canada in response to U.S tariffs. It applies to all U.S. goods imported into Canada for commercial use, along with personal use products that exceed preset personal exemptions.
World stock markets continued to whiplash Tuesday as Trump’s tariff war with China escalated
After shooting out of the gate Tuesday, North American stock markets stumbled for the fourth straight day, as the threat of an escalating trade war between China and the U.S. weighed on traders just hours before “reciprocal” tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump went into effect at midnight.
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