US Takes New Jab at Canada in Trade War

Canada's booze aisle just shrank for American buyers. As of 12:01am Tuesday, the Trump administration began blocking a slate of Canadian imports—from beer, wine, and many liquors to motorcycle parts, dairy byproducts, and molasses, reports the CBC. The ban follows 50% tariffs Trump placed on about 5% of Canadian goods last month, a move that prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to implement retaliatory tariffs. Economists say the latest step covers only about 0.25% of Canada's exports to the US and is unlikely to dent either economy, and CNN notes that plenty of exemptions and workarounds are in place. But they also warn that the move signals a deeper rupture between two tightly linked trade partners, per the New York Times.

"For a lot of these goods, the 50% was already acting as a de facto ban by making importation from Canada into the United States uneconomical," trade attorney and former US trade official Patrick Childress tells the AP. Still, the clash is clouding the future of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which analysts say is now on the brink of failure. Canada, America's No. 2 trading partner and top energy supplier, is central to supply chains from autos to aluminum. Democrats are seizing on the dispute ahead of November's midterms, calling the tariffs and bans a "bad deal" for consumers. Trump insists Canada has treated US farmers "very, very bad" and predicts Ottawa will come to the table within weeks, even as his trade team says there's "no urgency" to strike a deal.