Canada – U.S. July 2026 –

27 July
The saga of the Gordie Howe bridge
Today, the Gordie Howe Bridge is set to officially open to the public, connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan.
Its ceremonial opening on Friday [24 July] was a one-sided affair. It was originally supposed to be a joint ceremony with U.S. officials, but that was cancelled after President Donald Trump announced his plans to hit Canada with a new whack of tariffs.
That’s just one of the many bumps in the road to getting this bridge open.
28 July
‘You Aren’t Going to Like What Comes After America’
By Chrystia Freeland, former deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and minister of finance of Canada.
(NYT opinion) …  It’s about whether Canada is prepared to accept a profound change in its relationship with the United States. It’s about whether Canada is willing to go from being an ally and a partner, in a relationship governed by treaties and rules, to being a vassal, subject to Washington fiat — like the Venezuela of Delcy Rodríguez, only with snowdrifts and hockey.
… As we did in 2018, when we responded to the first major U.S. tariff attack with dollar-for-dollar retaliation, Canada must fight back. The only thing a bully understands is strength, and Mr. Trump is keen to establish himself as the world’s apex predator.
Self-defense works best when you do it as a team, and that is why my friend and former Liberal Party parliamentary colleague Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has struck such a chord around the world with his call for middle powers to act together.
That’s the right thing for the rest of us to do, and it is happening faster than Americans may realize. But the big unknown remains what happens in the United States.

29 July-5 August
Trade negotiators revive proposed steel and aluminum exports quota in return for lower U.S. tariffs
(Globe & Mail) Trade negotiators are reviving a proposal that would see Canadian steel and aluminum exports subject to a quota system in return for lower U.S. levies on the metals, as the clock ticks down on President Donald Trump’s next round of tariffs.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Janice Charette, Canada’s chief negotiator, jetted to Washington on Tuesday for the second time in as many weeks as the pressure ramps up to make a breakthrough in stalled trade talks.
Their schedule this week includes meeting with U.S. industry groups that support the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as well as sitting down with senators, one Canadian official told The Globe and Mail.
It was unclear whether Mr. LeBlanc would meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick or any other members of the Trump administration.
LeBlanc returns to Washington in effort to advance trade talks
Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the two governments had agreed to intensify talks after U.S. President Donald Trump said that his administration would impose additional 50-per-cent tariffs on around US$20-billion worth of Canadian exports.
The tariffs would hit around 5 per cent of Canadian exports to the U.S., with the affected industries concentrated in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Unlike some of the other U.S. tariffs, there is no carve-out for products that comply with the rules of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The Section 338 tariffs are explicitly aimed at getting Canada to back down on several retaliatory measures taken over the past year in response to earlier U.S. tariffs, including provincial bans on U.S. alcohol sales and Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on American vehicles. The trade action also takes aim at how Canada allocates dairy quotas – a long-standing U.S. concern.

28-31 July
International unions urge Trump official to reconsider 50% tariffs on Canadian goods
Alessia Passafiume The Canadian Press
… In a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the international presidents of the United Steelworkers union and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers say trade practices must not drive a deeper wedge between the two countries.
“Each country must ensure that trade is fair and that trade irritants are addressed, however the U.S. trade relationship with Canada over the last year and a half has been marked more by division than co-operation,” wrote United Steelworkers president Roxanne Brown and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers president Brian Bryant, who are both based in the U.S.
“On behalf of our members on both sides of the border, we call for renewed engagement and negotiations to return our relationship to a more stable, balanced footing.”
Major unions break with Trump over 50% Canada tariffs, warning North American jobs are at risk
(MSN Money) When two of North America’s largest industrial unions tell a tariff-friendly White House that “Canada has never been the problem,” the warning carries unusual weight. On July 28, the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers urged U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to reconsider new 50% duties on nearly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports. The measures are scheduled to begin August 19 and would reach some goods that qualify under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
A Rare Labour Challenge From Inside the Protectionist Camp
The union intervention matters because it did not come from organizations normally opposed to trade enforcement. The United Steelworkers represents about 850,000 members and retirees across industries including metals, mining, chemicals, auto supply and energy. The Machinists union represents roughly 600,000 active and retired members in aerospace, defence, transportation, shipbuilding and manufacturing. Their presidents, Roxanne Brown and Brian Bryant, jointly asked the Trump administration to return to negotiations rather than deepen the tariff wall.
That makes this a targeted break with Trump, not a conversion to free-trade orthodoxy. The unions stressed that they have supported several of the administration’s trade actions and still favour strong enforcement against countries using subsidies, forced labour or other unfair practices. Their objection is that Canada is a deeply integrated ally whose workers often build the same products as Americans. In practical terms, the unions are arguing that protection aimed in the wrong direction can become self-inflicted industrial damage. …
Canada Is Built Into the American Production System
The unions’ core concern is the scale and structure of the relationship. U.S. goods trade with Canada totalled an estimated $719.5 billion in 2025, including $336.5 billion in American exports and $383 billion in imports. That works out to nearly $2 billion in goods crossing the border on an average day. Canada also remains one of the most important customers for American manufacturers, farmers and energy-related businesses.

22-24 July
Trump wants trade — just not on terms anyone can decipher
By Carson Jerema, National Post managing editor, comment
Canada must focus on what it can control and that isn’t the American president
U.S. President Donald Trump’s position in his trade dispute with Canada is that this country must absorb any and all unprovoked acts of aggression and possibly even ask the Americans if they can deliver more hardship, maybe even thank the president for imposing tariffs on us. It is difficult to draw any other conclusion from the new round of tariffs Trump has pledged this week to enact on Canada.
Threats of new 50 per cent levies on a smattering of Canadian imports, ranging from cement to dairy, and from jewelry and essential oils to smartphones and gaming consoles, are intended as supposed retaliation for Canada’s supply management system, as well as the ban on American liquor sales in some provinces, and Canadian tariffs on American auto imports….
Navarro On Rebuilding Trump’s Tariff Regime (YouTube)
White House senior advisor Peter Navarro discusses the administration’s effort to reconstruct its tariff program using several trade laws after the Supreme Court struck down its previous approach. He defends new tariffs tied to forced labor in global supply chains and says separate investigations could lead to additional duties over the European Union’s treatment of US technology companies and foreign industrial overcapacity. Navarro argues the measures will help rebalance trade without producing sustained inflation and urges the Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates in response to the energy-price shock from the Iran war. He speaks with Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power”.

New Tariffs as Old Ones Expire: The Latest on Trump’s Trade War
The president has unveiled a complicated system to forge ahead with his trade war, after the Supreme Court stuck down his original levies.
(NYT) … Separately, the Trump administration took direct aim at Canada this month.
On Monday, the president announced that the United States would soon impose a 50 percent tariff on goods arriving from its neighbor, including cement, dairy products, hockey sticks, plywood, paper and wine, alleging that Canada had discriminated against U.S. industry.
To do this, Mr. Trump tapped an obscure provision of another trade law, Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which permits tariffs as a response to countries that put undue burdens on U.S. imports. The tariffs are set to take effect in August. It is unclear how this duty will interact with those imposed on Canada under Section 301.
Unlike the president’s past actions targeting Canada, this tariff will apply even to goods that are covered under the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement, known as U.S.M.C.A. That trade deal, which Mr. Trump signed in 2018, is being renegotiated.