Auto content rules remain unsettled as the pause on 50% duties expires Friday
Ninety minutes of daylight was all that separated Canadian exporters from a 50 percent tariff wall.
US President Donald Trump paused the Section 338 duties late Tuesday, less than two hours before they were due to take effect at 12:01 am ET Wednesday, AP News reported.
The reprieve runs until the end of day Friday, August 21, Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed in a statement carried by CBS News.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he paused the tariffs "based on the fact that Canada and the US, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL," Reuters reported.
Carney struck a more measured note an hour later, saying "substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done."
US officials provided no further details and Ottawa did not confirm any contents of an agreement, Reuters reported.
Oxford Economics estimates the duties would target roughly 5.5 percent of Canada's exports to the United States, worth about US$20bn.
The consultancy said the measures pose only a "modest" negative risk to Canada's economy but would "affect central Canada's manufacturing sector much more severely."
Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive officer Candace Laing said in a statement that the three-day delay offers some relief but falls short of the certainty a signed interim agreement would deliver, AP News reported.
"This limbo state is not anyone's preferred outcome," Laing said, urging negotiators to close quickly.
The US Trade Representative's office said the deal will include "comprehensive market access for all American goods, economic security commitments, digital trade alignment," and other provisions, Reuters reported.
In a proclamation posted to the White House website, Trump said he had received Canada's commitment to address American concerns over duties on dairy products, alcoholic beverages, and motor vehicles.
Canada did not immediately confirm those commitments, AP News reported.
Industry sources told Reuters the two sides have discussed cutting Section 232 tariffs on Canadian vehicles to 15 percent from 25 percent, with further reductions tied to the amount of American content in each vehicle.
Washington has demanded that only US-produced content count toward those deductions while Ottawa pushed for all North American content, including Canadian and Mexican parts.
The US Commerce Department released rules Tuesday cutting content certification for automakers exporting from Canada and Mexico to once per year from twice, Reuters reported.
Automakers must recertify vehicles' American content by September 30 to claim deductions in the new annual cycle starting December 1, according to the Federal Register notice cited in the same report.
Trump wrote that the Keystone XL pipeline "may be awoken from the grave," Reuters reported, without providing details.
Former president Joe Biden cancelled the project in 2021 after years of indigenous and environmental opposition, according to the same report.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States called for "a negotiated solution that gets American spirits back on retail shelves in all Canadian provinces and returns the spirits sector to a zero-for-zero tariff framework," Reuters reported.
The duties cover roughly US$20bn of Canadian goods and would apply regardless of Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) status, according to a previous report by Wealth Professional.
Canada's minister responsible for US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, and chief trade negotiator Janice Charette have been in Washington since last week, Reuters reported, meeting for nearly two hours Monday with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Canada had threatened to answer new tariffs with levies of its own between two countries that sold each other US$880bn worth of goods and services last year, AP News reported.
