Authorities in Canada and the European Union announced a new round of tariffs on American goods after the Trump administration introduced higher levies on steel and aluminum imports.
Canada said on Wednesday that it would impose 25 percent reciprocal tariffs on steel products, as well as items like tools, computers, servers, display monitors, sports equipment, and cast-iron products, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The move indeed comes days after the Trump administration imposed new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
European officials are meanwhile hiking tariffs on American bourbon, motorcycles, beef, poultry, peanut butter, and jeans.
The Associated Press noted that the European tariffs are targeted at predominantly Republican states, from which President Donald Trump enjoys the most support.
Kansas and Nebraska are some of the most significant beef and poultry producers in the country, while wood products from Alabama and Georgia are also targets.
But at least some blue states will be caught in the crosshairs.
Illinois, the largest producer of soybeans in the United States, will also be impacted since those crops are on the list.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that European Union authorities “deeply regret this measure.”
Will Europe’s tariffs be effective?
“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said.
She added that the European Union “will always remain open to negotiation.”
“We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs.”
Mark Carney, the next prime minister of Canada who will be sworn in this week, meanwhile said that both the United States and his home country will be better off once “the greatest economic and security partnership in the world is renewed, relaunched.”
The reciprocal tariffs mirror European backlash when Trump imposed similar levies on goods from the continent during his first term.
At the time, the European Union also hiked tariffs on American motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter, and jeans.
The Associated Press observed that American producers of spirits will likely see their rapid entry into European markets stymied amid the tariffs.
Exports to the European Union have increased 60 percent in the past three years after another set of tariffs ended.
But the Trump administration has argued that “both friend and foe” have treated the United States “unfairly” with respect to trade policy.
“The United States imposes fewer barriers to imports than other major world economies, including those with similar political and economic systems. For many years, the United States has been treated unfairly by trading partners,” the White House said in one memo last month.
“This lack of reciprocity is one source of our country’s large and persistent annual trade deficit in goods — closed markets abroad reduce United States exports and open markets at home result in significant imports.”
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