The decision was announced by Canada’s minister of foreign affairs Chrystia Freeland, which came into effect yesterday (1 July).
The beef products, including bovine, will be subject to 10% surtaxes and will remain in place until the US eliminates trade-restrictive measures against Canadian steel and aluminium products, according to the Canadian government.
“These countermeasures will only apply to goods originating from the US, which shall be considered as those goods eligible to be marked as a good of the US, in accordance with the Determination of Country of Origin for the Purposes of Marking Goods (NAFTA Countries) Regulations,” said Canada’s department of finance in a statement.
“The countermeasures will not apply to US goods that are in transit to Canada on the day on which these countermeasures come into force.”
The move was implemented in response to the US’ unfavourable decision to raise tariffs on its steel and aluminium imports by rates of 25% and 10% respectively.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) responded by stating that the tariffs were “clearly avoidable” and will affect Canadian consumers.
“We may not know the extent of the damage these tariffs may have on our producers, but we believe that cooperation is a better path forward than escalation,” said NCBA’s director of international trade and market access Kent Bacus.
“We encourage our government and the Canadian government to remember that we are allies and we rely on each other for future economic prosperity.”
Other retaliatory measures taken place by key international meat markets include Mexico, who imposed 10% pork tariffs on US cuts, which is set to double to 20% from the 5 July.