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Ongoing7 earlier updates19 days

This story has run 8 times over 19 days, starting Aug 20.

  1. Trump pauses 50% Canada tariff two hours before it hits, buying three days
  2. Trump imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods and threatened the same rate on autos and steel
  3. Canada tariffs nearly $20 billion in U.S. goods to match Trump’s 50% levies
  4. Trump calls it a rejection of all Canadian imports; the enacted 50% tariffs cover about 5%
  5. Trade talks with Canada collapse, leaving 50% U.S. tariffs on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods
  6. UpdateCanada tariffs $20B of U.S. goods Sept. 8; U.S. trade rep says no talks underway
  7. UpdateCanada's 50% tariffs on $27.6B of U.S. goods start Tuesday, Sept. 8
  8. UpdateCanada's 15%-50% tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. goods took effect just after midnight Tuesday, Sept. 8 — this issue
ABC NEWSUpdate

Canada's 15%-50% tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. goods took effect just after midnight Tuesday, Sept. 8

Tariffs and trade
Political Guyentist · September 8, 20264 min read

ABC NEWS

Hours earlier Trump posted "NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!" — the Quebec planemaker runs a Kansas plant with 3,500 American workers.

What is actually on the list. Ottawa came in lighter and more targeted than it had signalled: roughly $20 billion of American goods, taxed at 15%, 25% or 50%, each rate matched to whatever the U.S. charges on the same product. They answer the U.S. tariffs that went on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods on Tuesday, Aug. 25 — the figure that circulated yesterday as Canada’s own number.

The threat. Hours before the deadline, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Bombardier, the Quebec-based planemaker, must move production to the U.S. or lose the American market. ([TS]Its Wichita plant already holds a live Air Force contract, per GovCon Wire.)

"NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a 'piggybank.'"Donald Trump

The Wichita plant. The company already builds in America. Its Wichita, Kansas plant employs 3,500 people making special-mission military aircraft, and Sen. Jerry Moran (Sen-R Kansas) said he had contacted the administration to protect those jobs.

Still open. The White House has not said what legal tool, if any, would carry out the Bombardier threat. No talks between the two governments are scheduled.

Catch upwhat happened before · 7 earlier issues
  • Aug. 19 — Trump paused a 50% tariff on about $20.2 billion of Canadian goods two hours before it was due to take effect.
  • Aug. 22 — The replacement deadline passed with nothing signed.
  • Aug. 25 — The U.S. duties went on, covering $27.6 billion of Canadian products. Ottawa promised to match them dollar for dollar on Sept. 8.
  • Aug. 26 — Canada published a list of more than 700 American products it would tax.
  • Sept. 6 — Trump posted that Canada's "Dollar imbalance with the U.S. is unacceptable." Ottawa did not move its deadline.
6 earlier issues
What the Pentagon buys from Bombardier's Wichita and Tucson linesA $464.8 million Air Force award for up to six Global 6000 jets carrying battlefield communications relays3 details
  • A $464.8 million Air Force award for up to six Global 6000 jets carrying battlefield communications relays
  • A Global 6500 delivered to the U.S. Army's HADES surveillance program in November 2024
  • Modification, interior and paint work split between Wichita, Kansas and Tucson, Arizona

What we’re less sure of4 of 8 claims

Red take

Canada can reach $20 billion of American goods; Washington's duties already sit on $27.6 billion of Canada's. That gap is the whole argument for using it. Yes, Bombardier already builds in America — 3,500 in Wichita, a live $464.8 million Air Force award — and yes, cutting that off would bill the Pentagon for its own leverage. So the threat is not aimed at Kansas; it is aimed at Quebec, and it states the terms plainly: "If they want our Market, they must build here." Carney walked away Sept. 1 believing time was on his side. On the arithmetic of the two tariff lists, it is not.

Blue take

America is the bigger market, and Canada feels these tariffs more per capita — that much is true. But leverage is only worth what you trade it for, and this has bought nothing: talks collapsed Sept. 1, none are scheduled, and Canada's matched 15%-50% duties on $20 billion of U.S. goods went live just after midnight Sept. 8. Meanwhile the threat to end "SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES" points at a Wichita plant with 3,500 American workers and a live $464.8 million Air Force contract, which is why Sen. Jerry Moran called the administration to protect them. Threats the White House cannot name a legal tool for do not move factories. They move prices.

Related reading

RELATEDCanada's counter-tariff list covers dairy, tissue, appliances, lumber and clothing at 15% to 50%

More than 700 categories are named, with steel and aluminum bars, foil and wire doubled to 50%.