Trump announces 35% tariff surcharges on Canadian products starting August 1

Donald Trump announced Thursday, July 10, that he plans to impose a 35% tariff surcharge on Canadian products starting August 1, in the latest of his twenty letters sent to trading partners around the world since Monday.

"Instead of working with the United States, Canada has retaliated with its own tariffs. Starting August 1, 2025, we will apply a 35% tariff to Canada on Canadian products exported to the United States, independent of any sectoral tariffs ," the American president wrote in a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and shared on his Truth Social platform. "These tariffs can be changed, up or down, depending on our relationship with your country," Donald Trump warned.

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As with every letter sent since Monday, the American president specified that these customs duties will be in addition to those imposed on specific sectors, such as steel and aluminum, or automobiles. These are two of Canada's main exports to the United States, Ottawa's largest trading partner.

Earlier in the evening, Trump announced in a telephone interview with NBC that he planned to send a similar letter to the European Union (EU) "today or tomorrow. " "I would like to do it today," he said. "I'm talking to the EU, which is, as you know, a number of countries, and also to Canada. We should send them (the letters, editor's note) in the next few hours."

Around twenty countries have already received similar letters since the beginning of the week, mainly from Asian countries, with 25% applied to products from allies such as Japan and South Korea and up to 40% for some Southeast Asian countries. But it is Brazil, which has not previously been targeted by surcharges above 10%, which has seen the largest increase in customs duties applied to its products, with the American president announcing 50% in response to the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, accused of having carried out an attempted coup d'état after his defeat against President Lula.

Initially, these individualized surcharges were scheduled to begin collection on July 9, following a previous delay, but Trump signed an executive order earlier this week postponing them until August 1. In his letters, Trump assured that any response would be met with an additional surcharge of the same magnitude.