Trump targets Canada, re-imposing tariffs on aluminum

Instead, Trump declared Thursday that he is reimposing the tariffs on Canada. Speaking at a Whirlpool plant in Ohio, the president said that Canada had promised that its aluminum industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all of our aluminum jobs, which is exactly what they did.

Trade lawyer Daniel Ujczo with Dickinson Wright PLLC in Columbus, Ohio, predicted that Canada will retaliate with tariffs of its own unless U.S. and Canadian negotiators can reach a truce before the tit-for-tat import taxes begin.

Ujczo said the tariffs appear designed to win Trump election year support from voters in Ohio, an industrial state. But the tactic, he said, might not work during an economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Voters here in Ohio were willing to give the president a long leash on tariffs when the economy was strong and Trump was using the sanctions as leverage to get a North American trade deal, Ujczo said. But the dealmaker in chief already got his win with Canada and Mexico. These folks will see it as nothing more than a political tool in a time of economic hardship.