A new set of Canadian tariffs on American products came into force at midnight on 8 September. The levies range from 15 to 50 percent and answer US duties imposed earlier on about C$28 billion of Canadian goods; the list runs from pulp and paper to electronics and, a government backgrounder says, the items most affected by the US measures.

Several farm products are on it. Some dairy goods, milk among them, face a 50 percent tariff. Cheese is taxed at 25 percent, as are sweeteners such as honey and molasses from the US, and some machinery parts carry a 15 percent tariff.

Canadian farmers are counting the cost. "Farmers from (this) end of the country to the other are feeling the pinch of higher costs (ex diesel). Now we are expected to pay a tariff/duty on agriculture parts from the (U.S.). More loans won't solve the problem," Christopher McLaughlin, a farmer from New Denmark, New Brunswick, wrote on X on 7 September, replying to Alberta farmer John Kowalchuk, who said he felt like a pawn in a chess game between the two governments.

American farmers may feel it too. With steel and aluminium in the new tranche, parts for US farm equipment could rise in price as well. "A tariff can hit the same component more than once," Jayash Paudel, associate professor of economics at the University of Oklahoma, told Wisconsin Public Radio. "It ends up raising the machinery cost for American farmers, even though the tariff is Canadian."

The dispute has escalated since Canada left the negotiating table on 21 August, when Prime Minister Carney said the US had "asked for too much and offered too little". Conservatives have repeatedly demanded the details of the proposed deal; "We're asking for the prime minister to be straight up," leader Pierre Poilievre said on 7 September. As of 8 September the government had released none of it, though the prime minister issued a "Forward Guidance" video on withstanding the dispute. Diego Flammini reported the story for Farms.com.

Photo: Ken Lund / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source: Farms.com