Canada's counter-tariffs on $27.6 billion of US goods take effect at 12:01 a.m.

At 12:01 a.m. on 8 September, Canadian counter-tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 percent began to apply to a list of United States products that the Department of Finance values at $27.6 billion of annual imports. The rates match, product by product, the duties Washington imposed on Canadian goods after talks broke down in late August.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the package on 25 August. He said Canada would answer dollar for dollar and rate for rate. The United States had put a 50 percent tariff on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods from 22 August under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, on top of earlier Section 232 metals duties. Ottawa's reply uses the same three rates and aims at the same dollar value, measured on 2024 import data.

What sits on the list

Steel and aluminium products that already carried a 25 percent Canadian surtax move to 50 percent. Furniture and clothing also sit in the 50 percent band. Appliances and dairy products, including cheese, sit at 25 percent, along with some steel and aluminium derivative goods. Electronics and tools sit at 15 percent, according to a Canadian official who briefed reporters when the list was published.

The published catalogue runs far beyond metals. It includes certain softwood and hardwood products, plywood, wood pulp, paper and paperboard, boxes, toilet paper, seafood, cosmetics, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper machinery, video game consoles, golf clubs and fishing rods. Global News counted more than 700 product lines. The Finance Department posted a backgrounder and a complete list and said goods already in transit to Canada on the day the measures take effect are not covered.

CUSMA-originating goods receive an exemption in some existing surtax regimes. The new September list is written as a match to the US Section 338 and Section 232 actions. Importers will have to read the Canada Border Services Agency customs notices to see how the exemption language is applied at the border. As of the evening of 7 September, several trade lawyers noted that detailed CBSA administration guidance was still thin relative to the size of the list.

The political arithmetic

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government designed the list after he suspended talks with Washington. Champagne's line on 25 August was that the United States asked too much and offered too little. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the response also aims at specific US states. That is a standard retaliatory technique: put the pain on districts that send steel, dairy, furniture or appliances north, and hope those districts press the White House to reopen talks.

Ottawa also announced support for firms and workers hit by the US duties. Reuters reported a C$7.5 billion package. The Business Development Bank of Canada was told to offer interest-free loans of C$2.5 million to C$5 million. Separate figures of $5.5 billion and $7.5 billion appeared in different briefings. The common point is that the federal government is using both a border tax and a domestic subsidy to keep plants open while the two capitals argue.

Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations called the Canadian move a standard tit-for-tat and a classic proportional response. That is a fair description of the arithmetic. It is not a description of the commercial effect. A 50 percent duty on steel, furniture or clothing changes invoices overnight. A 25 percent duty on cheese and appliances does the same for grocers and contractors. Firms that booked US supply for September now face a choice between paying the surtax, finding a Canadian or third-country substitute, or cancelling the order.

What changes on Tuesday morning

The White House and the US Trade Representative did not issue an immediate public reply when Ottawa published the list in August. President Donald Trump had already raised duties on Canadian cars and on a $20 billion to $27.6 billion slice of other Canadian exports, depending on which official statement is used. The two figures reflect different ways of counting the same confrontation. Canada's matching number is $27.6 billion.

Goods that left US plants on 7 September and were already rolling toward a Canadian port or truck crossing at midnight are supposed to clear under the old rules. Everything that starts its journey after 12:01 a.m. on 8 September faces the new rates. That is the line importers will fight over in the first week.

The larger question is whether the matching list brings Washington back to the table or locks both sides into a longer surcharge war. Carney's government has presented the tariffs as a way to reset talks. The list itself, once it is live, becomes a fact that US exporters and Canadian buyers have to price. Talks can resume. The invoices will not wait for them.