Multiple economic institutions now agree: U.S. households and businesses paid the overwhelming majority of Trump’s tariffs... not China, not Europe, not anyone else.
I think Canada was rather clever, even if unwittingly. When the U.S. declared tariffs on most goods, Canada declared counter-tariffs. Canadians would pay the counter-tariffs so we initiated a Buy Canadian program and blamed the U.S. tariffs for price increases. Then when it became apparent that CUSMA would cover 90% of our purchases and sales from tariffs, we dropped the counter-tariffs. However the Buy Canadian was seriously embedded in our National psyche. Additionally we patted ourselves on the back for being the good guy! That's a win-win to me.
I think Canada was rather clever, even if unwittingly. When the U.S. declared tariffs on most goods, Canada declared counter-tariffs. Canadians would pay the counter-tariffs so we initiated a Buy Canadian program and blamed the U.S. tariffs for price increases. Then when it became apparent that CUSMA would cover 90% of our purchases and sales from tariffs, we dropped the counter-tariffs. However the Buy Canadian was seriously embedded in our National psyche. Additionally we patted ourselves on the back for being the good guy! That's a win-win to me.
Governments rarely admit it, but tariffs on either side are basically self-inflicted costs used as negotiating tools.
The only real win is when behaviour changes in your favour... and Canada probably did get some of that.