President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the G-7 summit, Friday, June 8, 2018, in Charlevoix, Canada. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

On May 31, the Trump administration announced that it was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the EU. Now Canada’s Justin Trudeau has announced that Canada will slap US steel and aluminum with retaliatory tariffs on July 1.

VIDEO: Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau closes the G7 summit with a press conference in which he warned that unfair tariffs from the US would be met by an equivalent response from Canada pic.twitter.com/880rnd5L6Z

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 10, 2018

On the whole, this is pretty meaningless. Canada’s industrial base and population is smaller than that of the US by an order of magnitude so both sets of tariffs are going to be felt most heavily in Canada. But the iron and aluminum tariffs were chosen because Trump could make an arguable national security connection to them. The real target is Canadian agricultural tariffs which, at least in spirit, should have been eliminated with NAFTA (the FT means “free trade” or so I’m told).

PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, “US Tariffs were kind of insulting” and he “will not be pushed around.” Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018

I’d be willing to predict that this spat goes on for weeks, not months, before there is a reconciliation. I’d also be willing to bet that we see some of Canada’s agricultural tariffs go away.

I know tariffs don't work but why does Canada have these tariffs?
270% dairy
69.9% Sausage
57.8% Barely Seed
49% Durum Wheat
26.5% Bovine/Meat
18% Table Linen
Why did Canada create "ingredient strategy" tariff in 2015?

To protect those important industries and curb US imports.

— Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) June 7, 2018

Canada put a 270% tariff on dairy and messed with regulatory rules to artificially inflate prices in Canada. So why the big show with steel? Because this is how they beat previous administrations.@realDonaldTrump is not afraid to get TOUGH on behalf of the American worker!

— Brad Parscale (@parscale) June 9, 2018

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