Canada announces that it will withdraw most of its customs duties on American products on September 1st.

Canada will lift tariffs previously imposed on U.S. products that meet the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (ACEUM), Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday, August 22; a move in response to the exemptions granted earlier this month by Washington on Canadian products.

At a press conference after a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump, Mr. Carney assured that as of September ¹ , Ottawa will "eliminate customs duties on American products" in accordance with the conditions set out in the Canada-United States-Mexico treaty, while the two countries have accelerated their discussions with a view to a broader trade agreement.

According to Mr. Carney, the recent framework negotiations for trade agreements signed by Washington with several of its partners, including the European Union (EU) and Japan, are above all a way of "buying access to the world's largest economy."

For Canada, which has not yet been able to reach an agreement with its neighbor, the average effective rate applied to Canadian products is 5.6% because "85% [of] the products are not taxed" , to the extent that they leave for the United States within the framework of the Aceum.

Mr. Trump has in fact applied 30% customs duties on Canadian products, but granted an exemption to almost all products entering the United States that comply with the provisions of the free trade agreement.

An exemption maintained at the beginning of August when the customs duties presented by the American president as "reciprocal" and targeting the United States' main trading partners came into force. A gesture described as essential by Mr. Carney, and which explains Ottawa's desire to apply the same exemption to American products as of September ¹ .

"There's a time for everything in the game (...) We had to play physical in the first half to send a message, and that's what we did," he continued with the sports analogy. "But there also comes a time in the game [where] you want to score," he added, stressing that his government is now focused on signing an agreement that would provide long-term benefits to the Canadian economy.