President Trump signed a proclamation on Friday that takes a group of Canadian products out from under the 50 percent tariff he imposed on Canada this summer and puts a different set of goods in their place. The change applies to goods entered on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on October 30.
Coming off the list are plywood sheets, some paper products, certain machinery and refrigeration equipment, and certain packing crates and boxes, according to a White House fact sheet. Certain valves, carpets and waste products are among the goods that replace them. Canadian coffins and canoes will also be taxed at the 50 percent rate, Bloomberg reported, while bleached paper, cartons and specialized agricultural machinery join plywood in getting relief.
The duties themselves stay in force. Trump wrote in the order that the revised list will still offset the burden on American commerce and will better serve the public interest, and he authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection to issue whatever rules are needed to carry it out. The tariffs apply whether or not a product originates under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and they are charged on top of any duties imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the White House said.
Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican, said the exemptions cover nine categories of Canadian imports used by her state's blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed producers, including packaging, refrigeration and processing equipment and certain seaweed products, according to Newsweek. She said she pursued them in repeated conversations with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other administration officials.
"These producers are a vital part of our state's economy and support our rural and coastal communities," Collins said in a statement. Many of them, she said, rely on Canadian goods "that are either unavailable from American suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense." Her office pointed to wild blueberry growers, who import specialized harvesting boxes from Canada that work with the processing equipment they already own, and said an American company that made some cardboard agricultural totes has stopped producing them.
The dispute began over cars. In a July 20 proclamation, Trump found that Canada's motor vehicle tariff scheme discriminates against U.S. commerce and set the extra duties to begin August 19. He suspended them for three days after Ottawa expressed a commitment to remove the discrimination, and they took effect August 22 after, in the administration's account, Canada "reneged on its commitment." A September 8 proclamation had already revised the product list once.
The White House says Canada walked away from a near-final trade deal this summer and responded with retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion of American exports. Its fact sheet presents Friday's order as part of an effort to "protect American farmers, manufacturers, and workers."
The relief is narrower than a tariff cut on Maine's crops. James Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, told Newsweek that much of it reaches the packaging, machinery and other supplies that farm businesses use, not the agricultural products themselves.
The announcement comes in the closing stretch of Collins's reelection race against Democrat Troy Jackson, one of the tightest Senate contests in the country. Bloomberg characterized the tariff change as an effort to boost her campaign. Jackson, whose campaign referred Newsweek to a statement he posted online, said "Trump's trade wars have made life harder and more expensive for Mainers" and accused Collins of enabling the administration's policies.
Collins said she would keep pushing for more exemptions and for a broader trade agreement with Canada.