Canadian negotiators are in Washington trying to reach an interim trade deal with the United States before 50 percent tariffs come into effect next week on a wide range of Canadian products.
US President Donald Trump's administration is set to impose the additional tariffs on Canadian goods in more than 500 product categories, including alcohol, dairy, honey and sports equipment, on Wednesday.
"A 50 percent tariff would probably pretty much cease the export of all those goods," Douglas Porter, chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, told Canadian media.
The goods are related to what Trump calls "discrimination" against US products, including boycotts on US alcohol and Canadian restrictions on dairy imports, which the White House has described as "unreasonable, unequal and discriminatory".
The new tariffs would affect about $20 billion worth of goods, representing about 5 percent of Canadian exports to the US, many of which had been protected from tariffs under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
