Trump swaps 22 Canada tariffs for 100 others, effective Friday

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(The Center Square) – Importers will start paying a 50% tariff Oct. 30 on Canadian shampoo, carpet and cocoa powder, part of an order announced last week as tariff relief for Maine.

The same order removed 22 tariff classifications from the 50% duty on Canadian goods, including specified plywood sheets, corrugated cartons, plastic packaging products, refrigeration equipment and machinery used to fill containers and grade produce. It added 100. The duties were imposed under a July proclamation to offset what President Donald Trump found to be Canadian discrimination against U.S. motor vehicle exports, and took effect in August.

The tax base roughly evens out, Alex Durante, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, told The Center Square.

"Looks like the removal of those tariffs basically offset the additions, so no change overall," he said. The nonpartisan tax policy group's tariff tracker lists $22 billion in annual Canadian imports covered by the duty.

Durante said the shift from business supplies to consumer goods would likely change who ends up paying, although he said different industries respond differently. The Tax Foundation estimates all tariffs now in place will cost the average U.S. household about $820 this year, with roughly $130 of that attributable to duties on Canadian and Mexican goods.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in February that foreign exporters absorb 5% of tariff costs and that U.S. consumers ultimately bear the remaining 95% through higher prices, including from domestic producers that raise prices as import competition falls. In May, CBO told Congress that more recent evidence indicated the share absorbed by foreign exporters may have risen to 10% to 15% by the end of 2025. The agency has not translated either estimate into a dollar figure for households and has published none specific to Canadian goods.

The White House has not responded to requests from The Center Square for such a figure.

In a fact sheet, the administration said the president was removing some products "and replacing those products with certain valves, carpets, waste products, and others," and described the order as offsetting the burden on U.S. commerce while better serving the public interest.

Trump signed the order Oct. 23. Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 says the additional duties shall be collected "thirty days after the date of such proclamation." Thirty days from signing is Nov. 22. The order directs collection to begin Oct. 30, seven days after signing and four days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The waiting period governs imposing duties, not removing them, so it does not affect the 22 classifications coming off the list.

The same seven-day interval is already at issue before the U.S. Court of International Trade. Gellert Global Group Corp., a New Jersey food importer, sued Oct. 20 over the Sept. 8 proclamations that added Canadian cheese to the list and directed collection to begin Sept. 15. The company paid more than $381,000 in duties before Oct. 8, the date 30 days after those proclamations issued, according to its complaint.

The Liberty Justice Center, which represents Gellert, said the new order presents the same problem.

"The administration cannot avoid Congress' express 30-day requirement simply by calling the imposition of tariffs on new products a modification of an earlier proclamation," Chairman and CEO Sara Albrecht told The Center Square.

The group is seeking class status for importers who paid duties under the Section 338 tariffs. Jeffrey Schwab, its senior counsel and director of litigation, told The Center Square last week the proposed class could include "hundreds, potentially thousands, of American importers."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced nine of the 22 removals Oct. 23 as relief for the state's blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed growers. She said Maine farmers rely on Canadian equipment and packaging that is "either unavailable from American suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense." Her announcement did not mention the 100 classifications added. Collins is in a close race with Democrat Troy Jackson.

Collins' office did not respond to questions about whether she reviewed the list of additions. The White House, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trade Remedy Branch did not respond to questions about the Oct. 30 collection date or how the added products relate to the motor vehicle finding.