Murray Wood: It's getting better all the time
Even if it seems - as the rejoinder in the Beatles' song observed - 'it couldn't get much worse,' Murray Wood suggests w...
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his cross-border trade war Tuesday as his outright bans on imports of certain Canadian goods took effect, putting the brakes on new shipments of most Canadian-made booze, dairy byproducts and some motorcycles.
The bans mark the latest escalation of the trade war as the Trump administration seeks to pressure Canada into trade concessions.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc dismissed Trump’s claim that Canada is going to come crawling back to his administration with an apology in order to make a deal in the next few weeks.
“I’m not thinking the government of Canada is going to apologize for standing up for Canadian workers, Canadian businesses, defending our economy,” he said Tuesday, answering questions from reporters at an unrelated announcement in New Brunswick.
LeBlanc said the U.S. government “decided to apply a series of tariffs that violated the trade agreement” Trump’s first administration signed just six years ago. He said Canada will do what it must to support and protect its workers and businesses.
Trump said Monday he expects Canada to return to the negotiating table in the coming weeks with an apology.
“I think what’s going to happen is over the next three or four weeks, they’re going to come to us and they’re gonna say, ‘We’re gonna get rid of all the tariffs,'” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We’re going to win everything.”
Tuesday’s import bans, which kicked in at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, bar Canadian exports of about three dozen different alcohol products, including beer, wine and spirits such as whiskies, vodka and gin. It also applies to different whey products, some types of molasses, non-alcoholic beer and some motorcycles.
BRP Inc. in Quebec confirmed that its three-wheel Can-Am Spyder and Canyon motorcycles “will be excluded from importation into the U.S.” But BRP said the impact likely won’t be felt until next year because it has completed most production and shipments for the current season.
Jacob Jensen, director of trade policy at the centre-right American Action Forum think tank, calculates the ban will cover US$967 million worth of Canadian imports, based on 2025 numbers.
Of that, 87 per cent would be alcoholic beverages the U.S. targeted because some Canadian provinces responded to Trump’s provocations by banning U.S. booze from store shelves.
The trade restrictions could prove devastating for the affected industries but are unlikely to significantly undermine Canada’s overall economic growth in the near term.
They follow the escalation in the trade war in August, when Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended talks and summoned LeBlanc and his negotiating team home from Washington.
Both countries accused each other of adding eleventh-hour changes to the agreement. U.S. tariffs hit $28 billion in Canadian goods the next day, followed on Sept. 8 by Canadian retaliatory tariffs targeting the same amount of American exports.
Since that breakdown, Trump also signed an order directing some federal agencies to remove Canadian goods from procurement lists, and another to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, a move that does not affect the lake’s name in Canada.
LeBlanc said Tuesday detailed trade talks are not happening but officials from both countries are still in contact.
“If the prime minister concludes at some point that there’s a deal possible that protects the sovereignty of our country, that would be in the economic interests of the country, then we would obviously be in a position to have that conversation,” LeBlanc said.
The U.S.-based group Toasts Not Tariffs, which represents farmers, distillers, retailers, restaurants and bars, said in a statement Tuesday it appreciates the Trump administration’s efforts to encourage Canada to reopen its markets to American spirits and wine.
“However, as this ban on Canadian spirits and wines takes effect today, America’s restaurants, bars, retailers and consumers are being pulled further into a trade dispute that has already taken a significant toll on U.S. wine and spirits producers,” the group said.
It called for a negotiated resolution to the dispute that restores sales on both sides of the border.
The federal Conservatives on Tuesday accused the government of doing nothing to help the Canadian alcohol industry and urged the Liberals to pause the federal alcohol excise tax and suspend the escalator tax.
Conservative Canada-U.S. relations critic Shuvaloy Majumdar said in a media statement that this “is not the time for higher taxes on industries that are fighting to remain competitive.”
Canada is also being hit with 10 per cent tariffs, which the Trump administration claims are connected to forced labour in supply chains. Those duties do not apply to goods that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA.
And Canadian industries like steel, aluminum, automobiles and cabinetry are being slammed by Trump’s separate sectoral tariffs.
On Monday, Stelco Holdings Inc. blamed the impact of U.S. tariffs for its plan to idle finishing operations at its Hamilton plant and lay off hundreds of workers.
Ontario, which is particularly hard-hit, expanded eligibility on Tuesday for a $1-billion financing program to provide loans to businesses affected by tariffs, and for a $150-million fund that provides grants or loans to small- and medium-sized businesses looking to find new markets.
Ontario’s Economic Development and Trade Minister Vic Fedeli said in a media statement the government is working to ensure businesses “are not only equipped to navigate the challenges of present day but can take the necessary steps to reduce long-term reliance on a single market and diversify their international exports.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.
— With files from Daniel Johnson in Toronto and The Associated Press
Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press
