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Trump bans Canadian whey, alcohol, motorcycles
September 13, 2026
Washington moved to block whey, most alcohol and motorcycles coming from Canada, after Ottawa answered new U.S. tariffs with levies of its own.
Canada and the United States trade under a three way pact Trump negotiated in his first term, in force since July 1, 2020, which lets most goods cross the border without duties.
Key facts
- Vancouver’s libertarian Fraser Institute reached a similar verdict, placing Canada 11th among the 165 countries and territories graded in its Economic Freedom of the World report.
- Under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, in force since July 1, 2020, the large majority of American exports cross into Canada without paying duty.
- Leonard Polzin, who studies dairy markets at the University of Wisconsin, describes a tangled Canadian protection scheme under which most dairy goods face duties above 200% once a quota is passed, with butter and a few other items taxed at close to 300%.
- World Bank figures cited here put Canadian trade at 64% of the country’s economic output, while the comparable American figure is 25%.
Fortune reports that the president answered Ottawa's Tuesday retaliation by barring a set of Canadian goods: the dairy byproduct whey, most alcohol, and two wheeled vehicles including mopeds. Several household items, toilet paper, bedsheets and fishing rods among them, came off the tariff list at the same time. The Associated Press reports the fight with Canada has widened past tariffs into other measures. Ties have worsened since the two sides broke off talks Aug. 21, and Inu Manak of the Peterson Institute for International Economics tells Fortune that the restrictions do not begin until Sept. 29, which leaves room to return to the table.
The coverage agrees on where each side stands. Speaking in Dublin beside Ireland's prime minister, Trump said Saturday a deal is likely once Canada eases what American farmers pay, and he cast Canada as a predator taking advantage of the United States over 50 years. Prime Minister Mark Carney answered that his country remains willing: “Canada is always ready to strike a fair deal.” Reuters reports that Canadian shoppers avoiding American goods have pushed grocers to change how they buy and to hunt for suppliers elsewhere. The Washington Post reports that the president's language has led some Canadians to steer clear of the United States, after a year in which he repeatedly raised the idea of annexing his neighbor as a 51st state and, last month, ordered the federal government to rename Lake Ontario.
The economics behind the quarrel draw the same account across the coverage. The World Bank puts Canadian trade at 64% of economic output, against 25% in the United States, and the Fraser Institute in Vancouver places Canada 11th among 165 countries and territories for economic freedom. Protection survives in a few sectors: Leonard Polzin, who studies dairy markets at the University of Wisconsin, says duties pass 200% on most dairy goods once a quota is used up and approach 300% on butter, while Washington has objected for decades to the help Canadian softwood lumber receives. American dairy has gained ground anyway, with sales into Canada climbing more than 11% last year on top of an 8% increase in 2024, by Agriculture Department figures. What the two countries buy from each other tips the balance because of oil, since Canadian crude trades below the U.S. benchmark. Settled: the import ban, the retaliation, the collapse of talks and the trade figures. Whether the two governments return to negotiating is not.
Asked Saturday whether he might withdraw from the three-country pact he signed with the Canadian and Mexican leaders in late 2018, the president answered that his country had been “ripped off for 50 years by Canada.”
Still developing
The deal with Canada carries the same way in every account, and nothing in the record as of the draft cuts against it.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- Fortune — The trade deficit with Canada that's upset Trump so much is due to oil the U.S. buys at a discount
- apnews.com — Trump widens trade war with Canada beyond tariffs. Here’s what to know