Trump imposes 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from all countries

U.S. President Donald Trump continued talks of imposing punishing tariffs this week by announcing 25-per-cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada. The order, which will come into effect on March 12, reinstates the tariffs he put in place on millions of tonnes of steel and aluminum imports during his first presidency. Ottawa declined to immediately announce retaliatory tariffs, but Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said that retaliation is coming and that Canada’s response would be “clear and calibrated.” Mr. Trump also asked his administration to draw up a list of reciprocal tariffs for every country, including Canada, that it believes is imposing unfair duties, trade barriers or taxes on American imports. This week’s tariffs announcements ramp up a global trade war that could wreak havoc on Canada’s homebuilding industry, the steel sector and even the country’s leading toilet paper producer.

Canadian rents, already dropping from peaks, could drop further from Trump’s tariffs

The economic uncertainty around Mr. Trump’s tariffs threats has also been one of the biggest factors on the minds of landlords and renters, Salmaan Farooqui reports. National rental rates are still 16.4 per cent higher than three years ago, but real estate agents and analysts say the tariffs and their potential to send Canada into a recession could lead to rents dropping even further. Landlords have already been struggling to fill their units at advertised prices with a lower demand in the rental market from plummeting international migration numbers and Canadians looking to cheaper communities – a big change from just a year ago when Toronto’s overheated market had prospective tenants outbidding each other for apartments with sky-high prices.

Decoder: Canadians cut back on trips to the U.S. in January amid boycott calls

Are you participating in any kind of U.S. boycott? The latest cross-border travel numbers suggest Mr. Trump’s tariffs and attacks have spurred many in Canada to angrily swear off trips south of the border. According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadian residents returning from trips to the U.S. by vehicle declined on an annual basis for the first time since the pandemic. During January, 1.5 million Canadian residents crossed back into Canada by vehicle – a nearly 1-per-cent drop compared to January, 2024. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the numbers in this week’s Decoder.

Shopify removes Kanye West store selling swastika T-shirts, says violated ‘authentic’ commerce practices

Earlier this week, Shopify Inc. faced criticism online – and from former executives – for not taking down an online store belonging to controversial hip-hop star Kanye West that was advertising T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas. Mr. West promoted his website in an advertisement played during the Super Bowl. The Ottawa-based e-commerce company was aware by Monday morning of the issue and a member of the incident response team posted on an internal Slack channel that the company was dealing with it, Irene Galea and Sean Silcoff report. By Tuesday, on the same day of its latest earnings report, the company decided to remove the online store because it did not follow the platform’s policies.

A trade war casts a shadow over entwined Canada-U.S. supply chains – and a steakhouse staple

Can surf and turf survive a trade war between Canada and the United States? It’s a question that underlines the deep mutual dependency both countries have built into their respective food supply chains. The complex journeys of steak and lobster both trace back and forth across the U.S.-Canadian border. Cattle gorge on a million pounds of feed a day in Calgary, but will be sent for slaughter to packing plants in Utah. Meanwhile, nearly 40 per cent of the lobster caught in Maine goes to Atlantic Canada for processing – before returning to the U.S. to be eaten as lobster rolls and other delicacies. Nathan VanderKlippe and Linsday Jones spoke to many Canadian fishermen and producers who rely heavily on exports to the U.S. about their vulnerability to the punitive effects of tariffs vs. their U.S. counterparts.

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