Eight US states Doug Ford wants Canada to target with tariffs
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called for eight U.S. states to be hit with “additional retaliatory tariffs,” amid a breakdown in trade talks between the U.S. and Canada late Friday.
Imports from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Texas and Wisconsin should be targeted because they are “politically significant states to the current administration’s base of support,” Ford said in a letter penned to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The letter was widely shared over the weekend but dated August 17, several days before negotiations fell apart and Carney said the two North American neighbors were now in a trade “war.”
Carney said late Friday he had decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and pulled the country’s negotiators back to Ottawa after the U.S. proposed “unfair” last-minute changes.
The U.S. then imposed a new 50 percent tariff on many Canadian goods, which the U.S. trade representative’s office said would impact close to $20 billion in Canadian imports. Carney called the new levy a “miscalculation.”
More than 75 percent of Canadian goods exports go south to the U.S., while Canada is the second-largest U.S. goods export market, behind Mexico.
Both economies are deeply enmeshed, and the U.S. leans heavily on Canada for its energy and critical mineral supplies. Canada, meanwhile, has historically imported U.S. motor and auto parts, heavy machinery and electrical equipment.
But Canada’s government said it started expanding to new markets in 2025, its imports from the U.S. as well as the goods it exports just south of the border dropping for the first time in a decade if the coronavirus period is discounted.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the U.S.’s 51st state, angering Canadians and whipping up a wave of anti-U. S. sentiment that swept Carney to power last year.
In the early hours of Sunday, Trump said Canada “wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” and claimed Canada had put “massive” tariffs on U.S. farmers for years.
“America has changed,” Carney said in a statement confirming the end of trade negotiations on Friday. “We will not return to our old relationship.”
“We never started this fight, but I can assure you, we’re going win this fight,” Ford told reporters on Saturday.
“We’re going to use every single tool we have here in Ontario, and hopefully, the rest of the premiers feel the same way,” he added.
Carney’s office said on Saturday the prime minister had met with Canada’s premiers to discuss the “dollar for dollar counter-tariffs” to come into force in September.
The Canadian leader said Ottawa would be enacting retaliatory measures “reluctantly,” because “some U.S. companies and some U.S. states are innocent bystanders in a dispute that they did not want.”
Republican Senator for Maine, Susan Collins, said the turbulent trade talks between the U.S. and Canada were putting businesses in the state in danger, and the U.S. tariffs would increase costs for ordinary families.
Vermont Democrat Peter Welch said the 50 percent tariffs on Canadian imports were “a slap in the face to businesses and farmers in Vermont and northern border states across America.”
U.S. and Canadian officials had expressed optimism about a trade deal late in the week, and Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister responsible for trade relations with the U.S., said on Thursday an agreement was “very close.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s office said in a statement posted on X on Friday that Canada had refused to ink a deal agreed earlier in the week and “upended the careful balance reached in the past days” by making “new demands.”
Canada would have received “the best treatment of any major exporter to our market,” the statement added.
What does each state sell to Canada?
Alabama: The state’s largest export market is Canada, and sent roughly $4.3 billion in goods to Canada last year, according to the U.S. government. This accounted for just under a fifth of Alabama’s total goods exports. Transportation equipment and metals are the top export categories.
Arkansas: Canada is Arkansas’ second-largest export market, and sent $1.3 billion in goods north of the border in 2025. This is just behind Mexico, to which Arkansas exported $1.5 billion in goods last year—itself 22 percent of the state’s overall exports.
Florida: The state ranks sixth across the U.S. in total exports, racking up a record $79.1 billion in exports last year, according to the U.S. trade representative’s office. While Brazil was its largest market, Canada came in a close second at $5.6 billion in exports for 2025.
Iowa: Around 30 percent of Iowa’s total exports in 2025 were to Canada, amounting to $5 billion. The next-largest export market was Mexico, although $3.2 billion in goods was sent to the country—significantly less than the exports going north. Its major export markets to Canada are agricultural products and chemicals.
Missouri: Missouri also hit a record for its exports last year, and its largest market is Canada. A total of 34 percent of its exports went to Canada last year, worth $6.7 billion, government statistics say.
Montana: Montana’s exports, while lower than many other states in terms of value in billions of dollars, flow heavily to Canada. Nearly half of all the state’s exports last year went to Canada, totaling $1 billion.
Texas: Texas is the largest state exporter in the U.S., reaching $448.2 billion of goods sent out across the world in 2025, much of which were agricultural products. While more than $124 billion was exported to Mexico—amounting to 28 percent of its total—Texas’ second-largest market was Canada, at just under $35 billion.
Wisconsin: The state’s largest market last year was Canada, sending $7.6 billion in exports to the country, or 28 percent of its total.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and Robert Greenall
