Has Canada lost its trade war with the US?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The country has dropped tariffs on a wide range of US products, a major U-turn in the trade war.

It comes after Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had reached a “new economic and security relationship” with US President Donald Trump.

But with almost 40% of small Canadian businesses warning they might not survive another year under tariffs, and the province of Ontario losing tens of thousands of jobs, what will this shift mean for the economy?

We break down why Canada is changing course and what it could mean for businesses and consumers.

Presented by Sam Gruet Produced by Megan Lawton

(Image: US President Donald Trump, right, and Mark Carney, Canada's prime minister, shake hands during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC on 7/10/25. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:06.5	Hello and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. I'm Sam Gruet. Today,
0:12.8	I'm announcing today that the Canadian government will now match the United States by removing all of Canada's tariffs on U.S. goods specifically covered under
0:23.0	Kuzma. As Canada's Prime Minister scraps most tariffs on U.S. goods, we're asking, has Canada
0:29.6	lost its trade war with the U.S.? Yeah, it makes you feel bad as a Canadian when you're being
0:34.0	beaten up. Exploring how seven months of tariffs and counter tariffs have hit Canada's economy.
0:40.3	We have members in our association that have reduced shifts, laid people off.
0:45.2	And what the future of trade looks like for the two neighboring countries.
0:49.9	That's all coming up on Business Daily.
0:53.7	I've spent the past year living here in Canada.
0:56.8	And in that time, the trade war with the US has been the biggest story in town.
1:02.5	So how did we get here?
1:04.3	Donald Trump, America's 47th president.
1:08.9	He claimed victory.
1:09.7	Donald Trump won the US election in November last year with a pledge to rebuild American
1:15.1	manufacturing. Over the next four years, we will make America into the manufacturing superpower of
1:21.1	the world. His tool was tariffs, basically import taxes on foreign goods. At first, President Trump put a 25% levy on Canadian imports,
1:32.1	but then Canada pushed back with its own counter-tariffs.
1:35.7	But Donald, you're a very smart guy.
1:38.5	This is a very dumb thing to do.
1:41.8	In March, Mark Carney was elected as Canada's new prime minister on a promise not to back down
1:48.1	against US trade tariffs.
	...

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