Adds aluminum, steel trade data.
Canada is levying new counter-tariffs worth nearly C$30bn ($20.9bn) on the US in response to Washington's 25pc tariff on steel and aluminum imports.
As of 12:01am on 13 March, 25pc reciprocal tariffs on an additional C$29.8bn of imports from the US will be put into place, Canada's finance minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday. This includes C$12.6bn on steel products, C$3bn on aluminum products, and C$14.2bn on additional imported US goods.
The list of additional goods includes computers, sports equipment, cast iron products, among others.
US president Donald Trump imposed a 25pc tariff on steel and aluminum imports on Canada, Mexico and all foreign countries, effective Wednesday.
LeBlanc said the government learned the US' tariffs would also be imposed on steel and aluminum content in "certain derivative products", which Canada is assessing and may impose further counter tariffs.
Resource-rich Canada supplies the US with about 70pc of its aluminum imports and about 23pc of its steel imports.
The US imported 3.9mn metric tonnes (t) of unwrought alloyed and primary aluminum in 2024, with 2.7mn t of that coming from Canada, according to Global Trade Tracker. For comparison, the US produced 670,000t domestically in 2024, data from the US Geological Survey shows.
The US imported about 25mn t of steel — including flat, long, pipe and tube — in 2024, with Canada supplying the most of any country at 6mn t, according to the US Department of Commerce. Brazil was the US' next largest foreign source at 4.1mn t while the EU and Mexico came in at 3.5mn t and 3.1mn t, respectively.
Canada's minister of innovation, science and industry, François-Philippe Champagne, LeBlanc, and Ontario premier Doug Ford will meet with US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington on 13 March to discuss an update to the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade agreement.
"The conversation tomorrow will be around lowering the temperature and focusing on the process that President Trump setup," said LeBlanc. Canada's position is that Trump should respect the USMCA agreement that he signed, LeBlanc said.
The European Union is meanwhile preparing to retaliate against Trump's tariffs. The region will impose countermeasures of €26bn ($28bn), introduced in two stages starting on 1 April and then be fully in place on 13 April, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on X today.
"I've been telling my European colleagues that Canada is the canary in the coalmine," Canadian foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday. "If the US can do this to us, their closest friend and ally, then nobody is safe."
