US ban on $967 million in Canadian alcohol, dairy and motorcycle imports takes effect

A US ban on imports of several Canadian product categories — alcohol, dairy products and motorcycles — took effect early Tuesday, covering an estimated 967 million US dollars worth of Canadian exports.

The measure is the latest in a series of trade actions the Trump administration has taken against Canada. Bilateral trade between the two countries is valued at roughly 880 billion US dollars a year, meaning the ban touches only a small share of overall commerce.

According to Jacob Jensen, Director of Trade Policy at the US think tank American Action Forum, the Canadian goods covered by the ban are worth about 967 million US dollars. Alcoholic beverages — including beer, spirits, sparkling wine, brandy and sake — account for roughly 87 percent of that total. Some dairy products and motorcycles are also included.

US trade lawyer Patrick Childress noted that the goods in question had already faced additional US tariffs, and that higher duties had effectively shut some of them out of the American market even before the ban.

The move follows weeks of mounting trade disputes. On August 22, the Trump administration began imposing a 50 percent tariff on hundreds of Canadian goods, including wine and cement. Canada responded with what it described as "equal and reciprocal" countermeasures, imposing new tariffs on more than 700 types of US goods worth about 20 billion US dollars from September 8. President Donald Trump also signed a presidential memorandum on September 16 excluding Canadian products from US government procurement.

Canada has already retaliated against US tariffs, and the latest ban is likely to worsen US-Canada trade friction while adding uncertainty to negotiations over the renewal of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.