Cnn
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One day after giving Canada a stay of a month By passing punishing prices, practically through the edge of 25%, President Donald Trump threatened new prices on Friday on Canadian wood and dairy products. It is still another turn in a Serpentine commercial policy which seems to change in a timely way.
“Canada has been getting us off for years from wood and dairy products,” Trump said in an oval office address on Friday, citing the price of around 250% of Canada on American dairy exports to the country. Trump said America would correspond to these dollar prices for a dollar.
“We can do it today, or we will wait until Monday or Tuesday,” said Trump. “We will charge the same thing. It’s not fair. It was never fair and they treated our farmers badly. »»
Canadian Minister of Commerce Mary Ng postponed Trump’s comments, saying that his statement that Canada “snatched” the United States was “not true.”
NG said the reciprocal prices offered by Trump on dairy products and wood are “completely unjustified”.
“I learned about this subject just when I was entering this press conference,” NG told journalists. “These prices if they are imposed in this order of magnitude is completely unjustified.”
Trump’s announcement gave investors, businesses and consumers Another high dose of cervical boost. One day earlier, Thursday, Trump announced a one-month break on all prices in Canada and Mexico on products in accordance with the American-mexico-Canadian free trade treaty, known as the USMCA. This had, at least temporarily, given many industries, in particular cars and agriculture, a great sigh of relief.
Trump said on Friday that more “changes and adjustments” on prices should be expected in the future.
“There will always be changes,” Trump said in the oval office. “If you have a wall in front of you, you sometimes have to go around the wall instead of crossing it.”
The actions, which were lower to start the day after a mixed bag of a job report, initially dropped after Trump’s pricing threat, but increased after the president of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell offered a mainly positive perspective on the economy. The DOW ended the day around 222 points, or 0.5%. The wider S&P 500 increased by 0.6%, and the Nasdaq, rich in technology, increased by 0.7% after falling in the correction territory Thursday – a drop of 10% compared to its last summit.
The markets fell deep into the red since Trump took up his duties, with the Nasdaq at the top of the declins. The S&P 500 is down approximately 3% since the day of the inauguration, largely due to economic uncertainty.
“The market is struggling to digest the multidimensional failures that Trump and his team play,” said Michael Block, a market strategist with the third seven capital. “This multidimensional chess game is not well for the Grand Master. There may be a method with madness. He could try to confuse world leaders. But the market says that ceasing to confuse us. We don’t like it.
On Friday, Trump’s threat added more uncertainty to an economy that showed cracks in its foundation and could be in danger of slipping if companies and consumers become nervous about the economic policy of the administration. The layoffs are rising, hiring slows down, consumer confidence is crumbling and inflation resumes.
Prices could worsen all these factors.
Canada imposes exorbitant prices on certain dairy products, including a milk rate which can reach 241%, to the great dismay of American dairy producers, who have complained for years that the border nation is unjustly treating them. But it is a slippery rate which only starts after US dairy exports have struck a certain quota – a level of American exports has not reached due to measures that Canada has set up to protect its national dairy industry.
“Us Dairy is grateful to the Trump administration’s efforts to hold Canada responsible for these protectionist measures,” said Becky Rasdall Vargas, main vice-president of trade and workforce at the International Dairy Foods Association, in a statement. “At the same time, an prolonged tariff war with our best business partners will continue to create uncertain and additional costs for American dairy producers, transformers and our rural communities. We urge Canada and the United States to negotiate a resolution in these questions – both Canada’s trade barriers to American dairy exports and prices – as quickly as possible. »»
In 2023, a panel of commercial disputes ruled in favor of Canada, arguing that high import taxes did not violate USMCA. The Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin has castigated the decision, arguing that this created an undue burden for the dairy industry of his state.
“Wisconsin dairy producers work hard every day to put world -class products on the market, and they deserve fair playground with their world competitors”, Baldwin said in the wake of the decision of November 2023. “This decision flies in the face of the agreement that our country has concluded with Canada and puts our dairy products made in Wisconsin in a disadvantage.”
But Trump, who frequently complained of dairy rates raised during his first mandate, did not negotiate more reasonable prices in the Treaty of the USMCA, which he signed.
Despite the grievances and the alarming number, Canadian dairy products are not significant export, and a reciprocal rate of 241% on milk is unlikely to make significant economic damage to one or the other country.
Trump has been criticizing Canadian American wood rates for several weeks, saying America should respond in kind. He said America can do without Canadian wood.
A decree that Trump signed on Saturday said that America had an “abundance of wood resources which are more than sufficient to meet our national wood production needs”. It’s not that simple Industry experts support: They warn the prices could eventually increase the costs of wood and construction – and even increase the prices of housing for consumers.
The United States has 300 billion trees, but economists and house manufacturers claim that America does not currently have the industrial capacity to meet demand and that the implementation of a significant rate on Canadian wood imports could further exacerbate the crisis in the affordability of current housing.
Wood is an essential ingredient in the US home construction industry, and the United States is obtaining around 30% of the soft wooden wood that it uses from Canada each year. Imports of booming from Canada are already subject to compensatory and anti -dumping rights of 14.5%.
This story has been updated with an additional context and developments.