The trade dispute between the United States and Canada entered a new phase of escalation on Tuesday, with Washington beginning to implement a comprehensive ban on the import of a package of Canadian goods, most notably alcoholic beverages. The ban entered into force at 04:01 GMT, in an escalation step within a series of mutual trade measures between the two sides.
According to Agence France-Presse, the American ban affects all types of alcoholic beverages, whey, which is a widely demanded protein extracted from milk processing, in addition to large motorcycles with engines exceeding 800 cubic centimetres, which is the category capable of competing with American Harley-Davidson bikes.
This measure comes in implementation of a previous announcement issued by the White House on September 8, which came in response to Ottawa imposing new customs duties on American products, which in turn was in response to additional duties previously imposed by Washington on Canadian exports, which also included raising duties on Canadian cheese on the same date.
In a situation that reflects the depth of tension between the two neighboring countries, US President Donald Trump stated, from his office in the White House on Monday, that “the problem is that the Canadians treated the United States in a completely unfair way,” adding that they “acted like one of the worst countries in the world.” Trump continued: “We get along well with China, we get along well with the people, and we conclude good agreements, but dealing with Canada has proven to be very difficult,” justifying the decision to ban alcoholic beverages by what he described as a “discriminatory boycott” of American alcoholic beverages within Canada.
On the other hand, in a previous comment on the crisis, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney downplayed the size of the economic impact, considering that the new American measures remain “relatively modest” in general.
