U.S. informs Canada tariffs will be imposed Tuesday

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The federal government has been notified that the United States will impose across-the-board tariffs of 25 per cent on Canadian goods starting Tuesday and 10-per-cent tariffs on energy, a source says.

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The source said that Ottawa will wait to see the details of the written executive order.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will speak today after the tariffs are announced, the source said.

The coming tariffs fulfill pledges made by Mr. Trump to erect new tax walls around the U.S.

They stand to tear tectonic new rifts across the landscape of North American trade, upending patterns of commerce that have built up over decades and on which many millions of jobs depend. Free trade in North America has endured in some fashion for at least 60 years.

Mr. Trump has sought to make that history a thing of the past.

From blueberries to crankshafts, here’s how tariffs could hit Canada in unexpected ways

Canadian political and business leaders have vowed to push him to change course, promising retaliatory measures and lobbying allies in U.S. corporate offices and state capitals to help plead the case.

But Mr. Trump has re-entered office with fresh determination to alter the economic trajectory of the U.S., blaming other countries for taking advantage of American goodwill to the detriment of its workers and companies.

Far more tariffs are coming, he said this week, with plans for new surcharges on the European Union as well as broad categories of products, including steel, aluminum, copper, microchips, pharmaceuticals and fossil fuels.

Mr. Trump has described such steps as necessary to restore American economic primacy, manufacturing prowess and wealth.

Economists have warned that the initial round of tariffs alone could considerably raise costs for the average U.S. household – on everything from avocados to pickup trucks to high-quality nickel to Ontario-made Ferrero Rocher chocolates – while yielding comparatively little in the way of federal revenue.

They are also likely to prompt new barriers overseas to the export of American-made goods.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford, speaking Saturday before the tariffs were announced, called them “reckless” and vowed to stop at nothing to retaliate and protect Ontario workers.

Mr. Trump has “chosen to tear up decades of goodwill that has made life better for workers on both sides of the border,” Mr. Ford said in a press conference in Brampton. Addressing the President directly, Mr. Ford said that imposing tariffs “is not a smart move, it’s selfish. This not only hurts Canadians, it hurts your own people.”

“It hurts you and your administration. It makes America poorer,” he said.

The Ontario Premier said he supports the federal government proceeding with retaliatory measures. Mr. Ford declined to provide specific measures before Mr. Trump details the exact tariffs that will be imposed, but he cited examples of commodities that could be the focus of Canada’s response, including high-grade nickel and other critical minerals, aluminum, uranium, potash and energy exports.

“We have an enormous amount of powerful tools in our tool kit,” Mr. Ford said. “Tools America’s economy and military depend on. Tools we may need to use in the coming weeks.”

Canada has prepared a set of retaliatory measures expected to raise levies on goods made in Republican-leaning parts of the U.S., including orange juice and bourbon. Mexican authorities have described a similar strategy, with plans to take aim at U.S. agricultural goods, including pork, cheese and potatoes.

Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Candace Laing called the U.S. imposition of tariffs a “profoundly disturbing decision.”

“If President Trump truly wanted to bring down costs for Americans, he would be looking at strengthening our trade ties, not tearing them apart,” she said in a statement Saturday.

In a message posted on social media Friday, Quebec Premier François Legault said his government would “protect our economy and defend our workers” with a swift response. “But the goal is to end these tariffs as quickly as possible,” he said, noting that Mr. Trump specifically evoked aluminum and steel, “key sectors that support our regions with well-paid jobs.”

“As soon as we know the exact content of the presidential decrees concerning these unjustified tariffs, I will respond to inform Quebecers of what happens next,” he wrote.

B.C. Premier David Eby underscored the expected price hikes Americans will face after the imposition of tariffs on Canadian products.

Mr. Trump “is going to harm families on both sides of the border for no apparent reason,” Mr. Eby said in a video posted on social media Friday. “I don’t understand why he would increase energy costs for Americans by 25 per cent; they’re already struggling with the price at the pump,” he said, adding that tariffs on crop exports would also raise the price of groceries.

“His goal, as I understand it, is for a golden age for the United States; it’s not going to come if energy and inputs to the American economy are going up 25 per cent,” Mr. Eby said.

In a series of posts on social media Friday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith emphasized the U.S.’s reliance on Canadian oil and relayed a Fox News report on “how tariffs could increase prices for U.S. consumers at the pump and what we can all do to avoid them.”

She also wrote that “Alberta has been calling for stronger action to secure our borders and curb the deadly flow of illicit drugs and illegal migration,” apparently echoing one rationale Mr. Trump offered to justify tariffs in recent months.

Over decades of free trade in North America, companies have built interwoven continental networks that process raw materials, manufacture vehicles and prepare food – all with little regard to borders that have posed minimal obstacles to the movement of minerals, parts and agricultural goods.

Zinc mined in Alaska is refined into germanium in B.C. before being sold to customers in the U.S. Seventy per cent of the nickel imported into the U.S. is refined in Sudbury, Ont., supplying half of what is used by U.S. defence industries. (That includes raw material from the sole nickel mine in the U.S., which is also refined in Canada.) Most of the potash used for fertilizer in the U.S., too, comes from Canada.

Free trade has produced mutual dependence: The U.S. is by far the largest foreign market for Canada and Mexico, but Canada and Mexico are also its largest trading partners. China is next.

The sudden re-emergence of borders as a costly hurdle stands to deliver not merely consumer pain and inflationary escalation, but considerable industrial disruption.

The impact will “be felt almost immediately,” Mr. Ford said, warning that the coming months “will be some of the toughest we’ve ever faced” with factories reducing shifts as orders slow down.

“Across Ontario, hundreds of thousands of jobs are on the line,” he said, in all sectors of the economy from manufacturing to services and retail.

He promised to spend “billions” to help workers keep their jobs, invest in infrastructure such as roads, and help companies develop new markets.

Auto parts can cross the border numerous times before finally being assembled into a vehicle. Free trade in vehicle manufacturing dates to 1965.

The Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association has likened the economic effects of a 25-per-cent tariff to the Ambassador Bridge blockade in 2022 that halted carmaking from Ontario to Kentucky. A tariff of that magnitude considerably eclipses automotive profit margins, the industry has said.

Tariffs will halt North American auto production and trigger layoffs: Linamar

The White House has argued that it is taking other measures, including tax cuts and regulatory reductions, that will offset inflationary pressures from tariffs.

Mr. Trump said he believes Americans are prepared to endure some difficulties in service of broader economic objectives.

“There could be some temporary short-term disruption,” he said Friday. But, he said, ”people will understand that.“