Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick indicated on Sunday that the tariffs on lumber and dairy products that President Donald Trump threatened onto Canada late last week are not coming before April 2, when the president’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs are set to take hold.
Lutnick revealed the updated tariff plan in a segment on NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he pointed to Canada’s “outrageous” 250% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he said will be responded to come April.
“Those reactions, changes to USMCA and beyond, they start on April 2. So on April 2, we are going to revisit again the fentanyl issues and we are going to revisit again the general trade issues of reciprocality. Remember, Canada is supposed to have a free trade agreement with us — 250% on dairy products. It’s outrageous, and you know the president is going to respond to it. But he’s agreed not to respond until April 2,” he said.
Those comments follow Trump’s earlier grumblings on Friday about the 250% tariff, which he hinted would be responded to with a reciprocal tariff early this week.
“Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products, 250% — nobody ever talks about that — 250% tariff which is taking advantage of our farmers,” Trump said.
“So that’s not going to happen anymore. … They’ll be met with the exact same tariff unless they drop it, and that’s what reciprocal means. And we may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait till Monday or Tuesday, but that’s what we’re going to do,” the president added.
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Despite the hold on any reciprocal tariffs on Canada for lumber or dairy products until April, tariffs are still coming.
Lutnick confirmed that the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports Trump signed off on in February will still take effect on Wednesday of this week.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
