On 22 August the United States began collecting a 50 percent tariff on roughly $27.6 billion of Canadian goods under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Sixteen days later, at 12:01 a.m. on 8 September, Canada imposed matching counter-tariffs—rate for rate, dollar for dollar—on the same value of American goods.
The Canadian Department of Finance published the lists. The countermeasures cover steel and aluminum, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, plastics and electronics, among other categories. Rates of 15, 25 and 50 percent were set to mirror the corresponding American rates. Existing surtaxes on American vehicles and metals remained in force or were raised. Ottawa also announced a $7.5 billion package of support for workers and firms affected by the American measures.
Further American proclamations followed. Some adjusted the lists of goods subject to the 50 percent duty. Others, effective later in September, prohibited the importation of certain Canadian products, including motorcycles, specified whey products, molasses, and beer.
The legal instruments are public: presidential proclamations on the American side, Department of Finance notices and the Canada Gazette process on the Canadian side. The trade numbers that show who is exposed are public as well.
What the Export Ledgers Show
Canada remains the largest single-country market for American goods exports. Census Bureau trade data place total United States goods exports to Canada in the high hundreds of billions across recent years, with a handful of states carrying a disproportionate share of that traffic.
Michigan, Ohio and Texas sit near the top of the state ranking. Ohio’s goods exports to Canada reached about $18.3 billion in 2025, roughly a third of the state’s total goods exports that year. Michigan’s two-way trade with Canada is dominated by transportation equipment—vehicles, parts and related manufacturing—that moves both directions across the border. Texas records large volumes in energy and manufactured goods. Maine’s exposure has historically concentrated in fish and seafood; Canadian retaliation lists have at times removed or adjusted seafood items, altering the immediate pressure on that sector.
These are not abstract national totals. They are shipments that leave plants, ports and border crossings in specific congressional and Senate districts. When a tariff rises on one side of the line, the price of the next shipment rises on the other.
The Sequence, Not the Slogan
The current round did not begin in August. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, first imposed in an earlier administration and later modified, had already drawn Canadian surtaxes. Negotiations that were intended to settle a broader package collapsed in late August. The Section 338 proclamations followed, then the Canadian match, then additional American adjustments and import bans.
Each step is recorded in primary documents: the proclamations, the Canadian counter-tariff schedules, the support-package announcement, and the Census export series that measure state exposure. Candidates in border states will describe the same sequence in the language of their parties. The sequence itself does not change with the description.
What remains measurable is the volume of trade that still moves, the rates now attached to it, and the calendars on which further adjustments can take effect. Five weeks remain until Election Day. The tariff schedules and the state export tables are already in force.
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