Canadian prime minister suspends trade talks with U.S., setting new 50% tariffs in motion

A new wave of tariffs will hit Canada early Saturday morning, with steep 50% duties in effect at the stroke of midnight.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday morning called steep new U.S. tariffs on a wide swath of his country’s goods “a miscalculation” after trade talks with Canada collapsed late Friday night.

The 50% duties went into effect at the stroke of midnight. Carney blamed the breakdown of talks on what he said were the Trump administration’s “uneconomic” and “unfair” demands.

“In recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits for Canada, and called into question the reliability of any deal. In short, they asked too much, and they offered too little,” Carney told reporters at a press conference.

After weeks of talks, Carney on Friday announced that while important progress had been made, “that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians.”

“As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa,” Carney said in an emailed statement minutes before the deadline.