Canada taxes back

Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on American goods today, ranging from 15 to 50 percent on products including steel, paper, electronics, and dairy. The move is a dollar-for-dollar response to U.S. tariffs placed on Canadian goods last month, and it marks the most aggressive escalation in a trade dispute that historians say has no close parallel in the two countries’ long relationship.

A trade war with no historical rhyme

Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes provided context by speaking with historians who study U.S.-Canada trade. Andrew Holman of Bridgewater State University noted that North America’s geography—mountain ranges and rivers running north-south—has always encouraged cross-border commerce, and that cultural affinity between Americans and Canadians reinforces the economic ties. But trade fights are nothing new. In the 1870s, Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, enacted protective tariffs to shield Canadian manufacturers. The U.S. responded in 1890 with the McKinley Tariff, raising duties up to 50 percent on Canadian goods. Some U.S. policymakers at the time saw tariffs as a way to soften Canada for potential annexation—a rhetoric that Susan Colburn of Duke University says echoes in today’s political language, including Vice President Vance’s description of Canada as a state.