Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) joining forces with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (D) to sound the alarm about tariffs being imposed on trading partners by the Trump administration.
Canada will announce Canadian $29.8 billion ($20.7 billion) in retaliatory tariffs in response to the 25% steel and aluminum tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has leveled, a senior Canadian government official said Wednesday.
"Canada is our state's largest trading partner," said Sen. Klobuchar. "We export more goods to Canada, ranging from Ag products to machinery to medical devices, than we do to our second and third largest markets combined."
In 2023, Minnesota exported $7 billion in goods to Canada. Klobuchar says the damage to those trade relationships with countries like Canada will ultimately hurt Minnesota farmers the most.
The aluminum tariffs will trickle down to many of the local breweries and tap rooms across the country including Jack Pine Brewery in Baxter, Minnesota. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S.
"Upwards of 70% of all packaged beer, specifically craft beer, is in aluminum cans. So if the cost of aluminum rises, that's gonna hit me," explains Jack Pine owner Patrick Sundberg.
Sundberg says any extra costs his business incurs will have to be passed on to the consumer, but Trump administration officials contend the tariffs will help create U.S. factory jobs.
The European Union on Wednesday also announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump‘s threat to double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada led the provincial government of Ontario to suspend its planned surcharges on electricity sold to the United States.
As a result, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the U.S. president pulled back on his doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs, even as the federal government still plans to place a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports starting Wednesday.
The drama delivered a win for Trump but also amplified concerns about tariffs that have roiled the stock market and stirred recession risks. Tuesday’s escalation and cooling in the ongoing trade war between the United States and Canada only compounded the rising sense of uncertainty of how Trump’s tariff hikes will affect the economies of both countries.
Wall Street keeps shaking because of tariffs. After jumping to a big early gain on an encouraging inflation update, the U.S. stock market lost all of it after other countries announced their retaliations following President Donald Trump’s latest escalation in his trade war.
The S&P 500 was down 0.3% in midday trading after erasing an initial leap of 1.3%. The unsettled trading comes a day after the index briefly fell more than 10% below its all-time high set last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also swung sharply, pinging between a gain of 287 points and a loss of 423. It was down 346 points, or 0.8%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher. The Nasdaq held up much better because of gains for Nvidia, Tesla and AI-related companies.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.