Trudeau hints at what’s next for Canada after tariffs

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs against the US immediately after the US did late yesterday (notably, Mexico didn’t).

The final line of his statement was this:

“Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for
groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs.
Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They
will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President
Trump in his last term.”

That hints at what the next fight will be in the courts and in Congress.

The first article of the US Constitution reads:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises

There have been a number of carve outs to that around dumping and emergency actions. Trudeau highlighted whether the 0.03 lbs of fentanyl that was seized in Dec-Jan at the US-Canada border meets bar to put tariffs on all goods in a country with a congressional-approved trade deal.

Several border states will be hard hit by a trade war and we could see a push to assert who has control of tariff policy.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.