List claiming to show Canada's high tariffs on U.S. imports lacks context, contains false numbers

General view of production along the Honda CRV production line at a Honda manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ont., on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Cars are listed among the American products that Canada supposedly has tariffs on according to a list circulated online, however Canada does not have import duties on cars from American carmakers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

 CLB

On Feb. 2, accounts on X and Facebook shared a list supposedly detailing high tariffs Canada imposes or imposed against imports from the United States. The list is lacking important context. While some of the percentages are correct, others appear to be falsified. The list does not take into account preferential tariffs — which make most U.S. imports duty free — or tariff rate quotas, which only impose higher tariffs once imports reach a certain quantity. 

"Here are just some historic tariffs Canada hits America with," reads , formerly Twitter, from Feb. 2. 

The post includes a list of 15 products and their associated tariffs, including milk at 270 per cent, chicken at 238 per cent and televisions at 45 per cent. 

The post received more than 100,000 likes, and similar lists spread online, including on Facebook, and comments.

In a comment, the X poster they generated their list using X's artificial intelligence chatbot "Grok," which gets its data from public internet sources and trains with users' public X data. 

X notes Grok "may confidently provide factually incorrect information, missummarize, or miss some context."

Rating: Lacking context 

The tariff rates for milk, cheese, butter, chicken and bovine meat are mostly correct. 

These tariffs are part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2018, during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term. 

Trump complained about Canada's dairy tariffs in the past, for U.S. farmers. 

But under the USMCA, most importers don't actually pay the high tariffs. 

Canada's place a limit on the quantity of a product that can be imported at a lower rate. 

For example, if they are "within access commitment," meaning the products do not exceed an agreed upon limit. 

If an importer wants to go over the limit, they face a tariff between 241 and nearly 300 per cent.  

However, preferential tariffs apply to the United States for most products under the USMCA agreement, which means the United States pays zero tariffs if they remain within the agreed upon quantity of a particular good. 

Andreas Schotter, professor of international business at University of Western Ontario's , said the tariff percentages shared on social media are inaccurate and a form of "fearmongering."

Schotter said both importers and the consumer pay the tariff price on imported products, but in reality most importers would not pay the higher tariff associated with going over the tariff rate quota.

"Nobody in his right mind will even attempt to import a product that is not sellable because of an incredible high price," Schotter said. 

High tariffs protect Canada's dairy industry

Schotter said the tariff rate quotas were put in place partly to protect industries like dairy, which can't compete with large scale U.S. farms. 

Marie-Claude Fortin, a with the University of British Columbia's faculty of land and food systems familiar with Canada's dairy system, said dairy products in Canada are subject to a supply management system, "which is sort of a fair trade national system for dairy products."

Under the system, dairy products in Canada must match national demand, which means international imports traditionally face much higher tariffs. 

Dairy was excluded under NAFTA for this reason, Fortin explained, but Canada ceded a "small percentage" of its domestic dairy market to the United States under the USMCA. 

"Since then, there is no tariff on these goods. Anything above this (percentage) is subject to very high tariffs," Fortin said in an email.

List contains false numbers

Some of the U.S. imports on the list seem to contain incorrect percentages. 

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø could find no evidence the listed tariff percentage on cars, HVAC, vacuums, cable boxes, televisions, steel, aluminum, copper and barley existed under the USMCA agreement or past trade agreements. 

All of the above products with the exception of barley appeared in a fact-checking a similar list, which claimed to show tariffs charged to the United States by Canada under NAFTA, the USMCA's precursor. 

The actual tariff amount Canada charged the United States for the list of goods under NAFTA was zero per cent, the Globe and Mail reported.

Sources

from Feb. 2, 2025 (), poster's about Grok from Feb. 3, 2025 ()

Facebook from Feb. 2, 2025 ()

About Grok, X , accessed Feb. 11, 2025 ()

Trump from June 8, 2018 ()  

General information on the administration of TRQs for supply-managed products, Government of Canada , accessed Feb. 11, 2025 ()

, Canada Border Services Agency, accessed Feb. 11, 2025 ()

, Ivey Business School at University of Western Ontario faculty directory, accessed Feb. 11, 2025 ()

, UBC expert profile, accessed Feb. 11, 2025 ()

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