By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-03 16:41:26 | Updated at 2025-04-04 18:28:07
1 day ago
Canada will put 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on US-made vehicles in response to the Trump administration’s import taxes on foreign cars, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday.
The Canadian tariffs will apply only to vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and on the “non-Canadian content” in cars and trucks that are shipped under the rules of that trade deal. In other words, the Canadian taxes mirror the structure of the US vehicle tariffs.
Canada was spared US President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs announced on Wednesday, but new 25 per cent US tariffs on foreign-produced cars still took effect early on Thursday morning. For Canada, those tariffs apply to the non-US content of finished vehicles.
Carney announced “25 per cent tariffs on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with CUSMA”, using the Canadian acronym for an existing North America free trade agreement.
Carney did not immediately offer detail on how many vehicles could be impacted by Canada’s retaliation, but called his response “focused and calibrated”.
Canada’s car sector is heavily integrated with the US and stands to take a blow from Trump’s tariffs. Stellantis NV, owner of the Jeep and Chrysler brands, has already announced it will shut down its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant for two weeks as it sorts through the impact, the company said in a memo to employees.
