Opinion

Fears of a Canadian trade war are overblown. So far, it’s more of a skirmish

Companies that invested billions in North American supply chains are being punished for playing by trade agreement rules

By E.J. Antoni Fox News

Published September 1, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Listening to most of the media and Canada’s prime minister, you’d think the U.S. and its northern neighbor were in a full-blown trade war after new tariffs were announced days ago. Au contraire: Anyone who checks the numbers can see this is merely a skirmish.

On Aug. 22, the administration's Section 338 tariffs took effect, at 50% on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods, or about 5% of what Canada sells the U.S. Ottawa's answer, effective Sept. 8, will be varying tariffs on roughly $20 billion of American exports to Canada, about 6% of what Canada buys from the U.S.

While tariffs on $40 billion aren’t chump change, they’re a small portion of the roughly $900 billion in products and services that are exchanged across the U.S.-Canadian border annually. Roughly 95% of transactions are proceeding exactly as they did in July.

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People should be much more focused on January, because that’s when 50% tariffs hit many more Canadian........

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