Trump plans to hike tariffs on Canadian goods to 35%
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump said in a Thursday letter that he will raise taxes on imported goods from Canada to 35%, deepening a rift between two North American countries that have suffered a debilitating blow to their decades-old alliance.
The letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is an aggressive increase to the 25% tariff first announced by Trump in February, allegedly in an effort to get Canada to crackdown on fentanyl smuggling despite the relatively modest trafficking in the drug. The higher rates would go into effect Aug. 1.
“I must mention that the flow of Fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote.
While multiple countries have received tariff letters this week, Canada — America's second largest trading partner after Mexico — has become something of a foil to Trump. It has imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods and pushed back on the president's taunts of making Canada the 51st state.
Carney was elected prime minister in April on the argument that Canadians should keep their “elbows up.” He has responded by distancing Canada from its intertwined relationship with the US, seeking to strengthen its links with the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Hours before Trump's letter, Carney posted on X a picture of himself with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying, “In the face of global trade challenges, the world is turning to reliable economic partners like Canada.” Implied in his statement was that the US has become unreliable because of Trump's haphazard tariff regime, which has gone through aggressive threats and reversals.
Trump has sent a series of tariff letters to several countries that became increasingly personal in recent versions, including a Wednesday note that put a 50% tariff on Brazil for the ongoing trial of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for trying to stay in office after his 2022 election loss. Trump was similarly indicted for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
In June, Trump said he was suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue its digital services tax, which would hit US technology companies. A few days later, talks resumed when Carney rescinded the tax.
It was unclear from Trump's Thursday letter how the higher tariffs would interact with the 2020 United States Mexico Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated. Under the current tariff regime, the USMCA protected eligible goods. But a review of the pact is scheduled for 2026.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
