Canada will face a 35% tariff on exports to the United States starting August 1, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a letter to Canadian PM Mark Carney.
Canada and the U.S. have been locked in trade negotiations in hopes of reaching a deal by July 21, but the latest threat appeared to have shifted that deadline. Both Canada and Mexico are trying to find ways to satisfy Trump so that the free trade deal uniting the three countries, known as the USMCA, can be put back on track.
Trump targeted both neighbors, saying they did not do enough on illegal immigration and the flow of illicit drugs.
The American president eventually announced exemptions for goods entering his country under the USMCA, covering large swaths of products.
Separately, Trump announced in an interview with NBC that he was also thinking of slapping blanket tariffs of between 15% and 20% on August 1 on countries that had not yet received one of his letters.
The letters announce tariff rates of as much as 50% in the case of Brazil to kick in on August 1 unless better terms can be found before then.
Trump told NBC that the letter to the 27-country European Union, the U.S.’s biggest trading partner, would be sent “today or tomorrow (Friday).”
