LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The White House is hitting back against Canada's latest tariffs, which were themselves retaliation for American ones. The Trump administration says it is now banning Canadian dairy, motorcycles and alcoholic beverages. It's moving to make it harder for government agencies to buy Canadian products, and there are potentially more U.S. tariffs on Canadian cars and auto parts in January after the midterms. NPR's White House correspondent, Emily Feng, is looking into how the trade war is affecting the election. Good morning, Emily.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: OK. So affordability - I mean, it's a huge issue for these...
FENG: Yeah.
FADEL: ...Midterms. Will this newest round of tariffs between the U.S. and Canada make people have to pay more, raise prices?
FENG: Yes, on a limited number of goods. And you see it most obviously already with aluminum. It goes into American cars and auto parts, and prices for aluminum have jumped to a four-year high, in part because of the war with Iran, but also, Canada made a lot of aluminum. These newest retaliatory tariffs from Canada are relatively narrow. They affect just about 6% of the overall trade volume with the U.S. But trade analysts I've spoken to highlight Ohio, Michigan and especially Maine as the U.S. state most impacted by these tariffs. It makes a lot of the plywood and agricultural products that have been targeted. And Maine, as our listeners will know, is where Democrats are hoping to flip a Senate seat...
FADEL: Right.
FENG: ...Held by a longtime Republican senator, Susan Collins. Chad Bown, a trade expert at the nonpartisan Peterson Institute in Washington, argues to me American companies are going to hurt too because of this trade war, because right now, they benefit from market access with Canada.
CHAD BOWN: It keeps Canadian consumers interested in manufacturing in, for example, the production of cars that are made in North America. It makes it less likely that they're going to suddenly switch over and start wanting to buy Chinese electric vehicles.
FENG: So companies are now worried about losing market access. And also, for example, Canadian aircraft company Bombardier said in response to Trump's threat this week, as well, that it was maybe going to - the U.S. might ban its aircraft from being sold in the U.S. It said in response it actually creates thousands of jobs in the U.S. because so much of its supply chain is in the U.S., and so the argument is, if it loses business, then its American suppliers lose business as well.
FADEL: Now, Trump, at least publicly, doesn't seem worried about Canadian retaliation and has over the last few days posted a lot on social media, actually mocking Canada.
FENG: Right. So there was a flurry of posts over the weekend. Some of them appeared AI-generated. There was one image that showed the U.S. flag overlaid across Canada and Greenland, which is another territory Trump is threatening to take over. You know, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Canadian leaders over the last weeks. He said they are tougher to deal with than China. And that raises questions about how this trade spat with Canada affects the other trade wars the U.S. is fighting, namely with China.
FADEL: How?
FENG: Well, Bown, that trade expert you just heard earlier, says, all these trade wars the U.S. is involved in - they affect each other.
BOWN: By putting pressure on Canada, you're weakening your own ability to fight the trade war with China.
FENG: Because, he says, if the U.S. wants to counter China, the U.S. needs to find new developed markets elsewhere, manufacturing bases, elsewhere, like in Canada, but we have a trade war with them now. Furthermore, the U.S. now has several layers of tariffs on various countries, including Canada. They all originate from different pieces of legislation, and they're overseen by different departments in the U.S. government.
And one effect of that complexity is the failed U.S.-Canada trade talks last month. You know, Canadian negotiators said it was the U.S. Commerce Department who came in with last-minute asks, and that up ended talks the U.S. trade representative's office had been leading.
FADEL: That's NPR's Emily Feng. Thank you, Emily.
FENG: Thanks, Leila.
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