A flurry of headlines jostled Canadian yields on Thursday, but the biggest news came after the market's close. Trump signed an order lifting his seat-of-the-pants tariff on Canadian imports from 25% to 35% (CUSMA goods are still exempted).
The President again pinned heavy fentanyl blame on Canada. That's despite overwhelming data that we're not the real problem. Apparently, data counts as fake news if it's inconvenient.
Trump also pointed fingers at Canada’s tariff retaliation, as if we were the ones who threw the first snowball.
Reuters reports that PM Carney tried to reach the President, but had no luck. Carney wrote on X that he was disappointed with the Donald. On the bright side, he noted that our CUSMA exception gives Canada "one of the lowest" effective tariff rates around.
That, of course, raises the multi-billion-dollar question: what fresh hell awaits when CUSMA expires next June?