Trump’s Threatened 50 Percent Tariffs Spur Canadians To Boycott U.S. Products In Toronto

Tariffs reshape daily shopping

In downtown Toronto, shoppers including Mateus Gujrel looked for small red maple leaves on grocery aisles as a sign that products were Canadian-made during a ballooning trade war with the United States. Gujrel, a software developer, said he switched his almond milk brand and stopped buying LaCroix, replacing the American sparkling water with a Canadian alternative, and told Al Jazeera outside a No Frills grocery store on Wednesday, "Anything that we can clearly see that’s Canadian, we will take,". The trade war escalated after negotiations failed to head off Trump’s threatened 50 percent tariffs on nearly $20bn worth of Canadian products, and the US tariffs took effect on August 22.

In response, Canada imposed a new round of retaliatory tariffs of between 15 and 50 percent on roughly $20bn worth of US imports, which Carney described as a "dollar-for-dollar" response targeting US products from steel and aluminium to dairy, appliances, clothing and cosmetics. Oxford Economics estimated that just 0.25 percent of the average consumer basket is directly affected by the new tariffs, while retail analyst Bruce Winder said, "I think that you’ll probably see some shelf prices increase in the next several weeks,".

Reporting for this sectionAl Jazeera

Canadians turn away from U.S.

In Fort Frances, Ontario, Tom Reid said he isn’t crossing the US-Canada border as often these days because his haircut provider lives in International Falls, Minnesota, where family ties and frequent cross-border trips have long linked the communities.

Reid said Canadians are shopping less at US businesses and encouraging consumers to "buy Canadian instead," while Andrew Hallikas, the mayor of Fort Frances, said residents are "irate" at Trump for bullying their country and for suggesting Canada should become the 51st US state.

Hallikas told the Guardian, "Please quote me on this. I cannot make this clear enough: we will never become the 51st state," and said Canadians are "quite content to remain that way, thank you very much."

In Toronto, Francine Piché began writing a farewell note after registering her opposition to President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada in other ways, and she said trips to the U.S. were out and so was her Amazon subscription.

Piché checked each item at the grocery store to avoid imports from south of the border, as the Washington Post described Canadians increasingly shunning the U.S. and its products amid Trump’s threats.

Reporting for this sectionThe Guardian

Europe outreach and border strain

As trade tensions with the US escalate, Canada is accelerating efforts to deepen economic and strategic ties with Europe, according to a Sunday report by the Wall Street Journal cited by Anadolu Ajansı. Prime Minister Mark Carney held talks with European leaders including those in France, Germany, and Italy, exploring ways to bring Canada closer to the EU without pursuing full EU membership, and officials examined an "associate membership" arrangement to provide closer access to the EU’s $21 trillion single market. Anadolu Ajansı said preliminary G7 meetings in France identified 11 areas for deeper cooperation aimed at reducing dependence on US technology, defense equipment, and trade, and Carney was in frequent contact with French President Emmanuel Macron and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

On the US-Canada border, the Guardian reported that the mayors of Fort Frances and International Falls signed a joint declaration in 2025 affirming friendship after Trump retook the White House, but local leaders said slipshod tariffs put in place by one man more than a thousand miles away in Washington are hard to blunt. Grant Hauschild, a Democratic Minnesota state senator who represents 65% of the state’s border with Canada, said he’d heard from businesses that have lost up to 30% of their revenue from Canadians, warning the impact can go from "a concern to devastation".

Reporting for this sectionAnadolu AjansıThe Guardian