In the trade dispute with Canada, the USA actually wants to impose new additional tariffs of 50 percent starting today. Negotiations continue until the very end. Now Trump is granting a delay - to talk about a long-buried pipeline project.
Shortly before new tariffs on a number of Canadian products came into force, US President Donald Trump put his plans on hold. The collection of import fees should be suspended for three days so that both sides can conclude a deal for the Keystone XL oil pipeline project, he said on his Truth Social platform.
Negotiators from both countries negotiated until the last moment. On Tuesday evening, Trump also spoke on the phone again with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney. He had previously announced that he would be prepared for any scenario and would negotiate from a “position of strength”.
After the negotiations, Carney also spoke of important progress, but also emphasized the work that still needs to be done to reach an agreement. "Substantial progress has been made, but there is still important work to be done," he said shortly after Trump's suspension announcement.
Pipeline project has been off the table for five years
Keystone XL is an oil pipeline project blocked by Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. Trump has long had the desire to revive the project despite massive concerns from environmentalists.
The project, which was actually shelved years ago, is about the 1,900 kilometer long expansion of the Keystone Pipeline, which went into operation in 2010 and runs from the Canadian province of Alberta to the USA. Oil extracted from tar sands was to be pumped through the pipe to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. But environmentalists were successful in their years-long protest against the oil industry: the operators and the government of Alberta canceled the XL project in June 2021.
In the trade dispute between the two neighboring countries, Trump originally wanted to impose a 50 percent tariff on a long list of Canadian products. The surcharges should be applied to Canadian wine, hockey sticks, furniture, dairy products and other goods. Tariffs would have actually taken effect at midnight local time.
Not the first trade dispute
It is not the first tariff offensive by the USA against its northern neighbor, and the products only make up a relatively small part of Canadian exports to the USA. But for the first time, goods that fall under the North American Free Trade Agreement would also be affected.
Carney denounced the new US tariffs as a "direct violation" of the North American Free Trade Agreement when they were announced in July and assured that Canada would "take equivalent measures." Nevertheless, Ottawa is counting on an agreement with its southern neighbor. Negotiations between the two countries on the terms of a continuation of the free trade agreement are currently ongoing.
The agreement, which Trump himself negotiated during his first term in office, is actually supposed to be extended for 16 years, but the USA refuses. As long as one of the three countries - Mexico besides the USA and Canada - does not explicitly withdraw from the agreement, it will continue to apply and will be extended year after year.
