Market Perspectives
Trump turns up the heat on Canada, raising tariff threat to 35%
President Trump turned up the heat in the trade and security negotiations with Canada Thursday night, by threatening to raise tariffs on the country from 25% to 35%, effective August 1. Preliminary and unofficial commentary suggests that USMCA-compliant products will continue to be exempt, which is a significant positive. This latest announcement seems more like a negotiating tactic as we near the July 21 date, when we expected to see a new Canada-U.S. trade and security deal (framework). That deadline has now been shifted to August 1. Overall, we expect investors to mostly shrug off this additional tariff threat, and that despite this added noise, the outlook for a generally favourable deal between Canada and the U.S. is unchanged.
