The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced a three-day postponement of the 50% tariffs planned against Canadian products, after reaching a preliminary agreement with his neighboring country to resume the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project intended to connect Alberta’s oil production with Nebraska.
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The implementation of the new tariffs was scheduled for this Thursday. However, Trump announced via his social media that he decided to temporarily suspend the measure while both governments finalize the documents associated with the agreement.
“I have suspended the 50% tariffs against Canada, which were scheduled to take effect tomorrow morning for a period of three days, since Canada and the United States, pending the finalization of the documents, have reached an agreement,” the president stated.
Trump presented the resumption of the energy project as one of the main reasons behind his decision. The president assured that the pipeline, whose construction was halted during former President Joe Biden’s administration, could be restarted.
“It could rise from the dead,” Trump said, blaming his predecessor for having “buried” the project.
The Keystone XL was conceived to transport oil from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska, where it would connect with the U.S. pipeline network. Its development became for years a matter of political and environmental significance between the two countries.
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At the same time, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had informed this Tuesday that he planned to talk with the U.S. president to try to negotiate the new tariffs.
The measures announced by Washington include a 50% tariff on a wide variety of Canadian products, including wine, cement, and hockey sticks, as well as affecting the automotive sector.
According to estimates cited regarding the measure, the economic impact could reach US$20 billion.
The Trump administration has defended the new tariffs arguing that Canada maintains discriminatory treatment towards certain U.S. products, including automobiles, alcoholic beverages, and dairy products.
Ottawa, on the other hand, has questioned Washington’s trade strategy. Carney stated that the measures are part of a series of unilateral U.S. trade actions that, in the Canadian government’s view, constitute “measures and threats to Canadian sovereignty.”
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