Nicolai Haugsted
50% tariffs are back — and Canada’s most famous sport just got dragged into it.
Trade tensions between the United States and Canada have taken another unusual turn after President Donald Trump expanded his tariff campaign with a new set of import restrictions.
While cars, dairy products and alcohol are all caught in the crossfire, one addition to the list has left plenty of eyebrows raised: hockey sticks.
Trump signed three executive orders introducing 50% tariffs on several categories of Canadian goods, adding another layer to the ongoing trade dispute between the neighboring countries.
According to the White House, the new tariffs are intended to counter what it describes as unfair treatment of American exports by Canada.
“In this way, President Trump is offsetting the burden and disadvantage that U.S. trade has faced as a result of Canada’s discriminatory treatment, and is leveling the playing field for key U.S. export goods—automobiles, alcohol, and dairy products.”
Among the products facing the new 50% tariff are Canadian wine, construction cement and hockey sticks — a staple of Canada’s national sport that has unexpectedly found itself at the center of a trade dispute.
Some goods escape the new tariffs
Not every Canadian export will be affected.
Energy resources, potash fertilizers, fish and critical minerals remain exempt from the latest measures.
Some products that had previously avoided tariffs under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), however, will now fall under the expanded restrictions.
The newly signed executive orders do not replace the tariffs already in place on Canadian imports but instead build on the existing trade barriers.
By broadening the list of targeted goods, the Trump administration says it is responding to what it views as Canada’s “discriminatory treatment” of American products while attempting to rebalance trade between the two countries.
