President Trump announced Tuesday night that he was putting a planned 50% tariff on most Canadian imports on hold for three days, saying the United States and Canada had reached a tentative agreement and suggesting that the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline could be revived as part of the breakthrough.
“I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”
Trump then raised the possibility that the agreement could breathe new life into Keystone XL, the massive pipeline project that was abandoned after President Joe Biden revoked a key permit shortly after taking office in 2021.
“The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” Trump wrote.
The president followed that message by posting an AI-generated image depicting himself pulling a pipeline marked “Keystone” from the ground alongside a damaged tombstone bearing the words “Buried by Biden.”
Trump’s announcement came less than two hours before the 50% duties were scheduled to begin, averting an immediate escalation in the growing trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa. The decision followed a day of intensive discussions involving Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
First proposed in 2008, Keystone XL was designed to carry as much as 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day over roughly 1,200 miles from Alberta to Nebraska. From there, the oil would enter existing pipeline networks supplying refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The pipeline became a major political and environmental battle during the Obama administration and was eventually stalled amid strong opposition from environmental groups. Trump later moved to revive the project during his first term, but Biden revoked a critical cross-border permit in January 2021. TC Energy, the Calgary-based company behind the project, officially abandoned it several months later.
The tariffs that Trump has now temporarily suspended would cover approximately $20 billion in Canadian goods, representing roughly 5% of Canada’s annual exports to the United States. Products including wine, hockey sticks and cement were expected to face the new duties, while critical minerals, fish, potash and energy products were among those slated for exemptions.
Canadian officials had warned that Ottawa would respond to the new U.S. tariffs with additional levies on American products, threatening to intensify a trade confrontation between two countries that exchanged approximately $880 billion in goods and services last year.
Tensions have also been evident among Canadians. A petition calling for the removal of U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, a Trump ally and onetime Michigan congressman, has accumulated nearly 218,000 signatures since July 21.
Carney had declined to publicly discuss details of the negotiations while the talks were underway.
″We are negotiating,” Carney told reporters Monday, speaking in French. “The negotiations are very intense and delicate. This is not the time to talk about negotiations in public.”
Trump first unveiled the 50% tariffs last month, shortly after he was seen speaking with Carney during the World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina. The president invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as the legal basis for the duties.
The Depression-era provision gives a president authority to impose tariffs of as much as 50% on goods originating in countries deemed to have discriminated against American businesses. The broader tariff law enacted during that period has long been criticized by economists who contend that protectionist trade measures helped deepen the worldwide economic downturn.
Trump has argued that Canadian trade policies unfairly disadvantage American products, specifically pointing to automobiles, alcoholic beverages and cheese.
Canada, along with China, was one of only two countries to impose retaliatory tariffs against the United States following Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff measures last year.
The three-day reprieve now gives Washington and Ottawa additional time to finalize the documents behind the agreement Trump announced Tuesday night, with the president’s remarks raising the prospect that a revived Keystone XL project could become a major component of a broader U.S.-Canada trade deal.
{Matzav.com}
