U.S. President Donald Trump ordered Canadian-made products to be removed from the federal procurement market, moving immediately to add a response after Canada put into effect retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on U.S.-made products.
Trump said on the 8th (local time) on the social media platform Truth Social that he directed the General Services Administration (GSA) to take all necessary steps to exclude Canadian-made products from the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) until Canada guarantees complete and fair reciprocity for U.S. farmers and corporations. He also had the GSA work with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to pursue the related measures.
The Multiple Award Schedule is a system in which products commonly needed by multiple government agencies are preselected and unit price contracts are signed with multiple vendors. Each agency can choose the needed vendor and product from the contract list and purchase directly.
Trump said the annual procurement volume through the program exceeds $50 billion (about 67 trillion won). However, the share accounted for by Canadian-made products was not confirmed.
The directive is seen as a retaliatory measure after Canada, starting at 12 a.m. that day, imposed tariffs of up to 50% on $27.6 billion Canadian dollars (about $20 billion) worth of U.S. imports.
Earlier, beginning on the 22nd of last month, the United States imposed tariffs of up to 50% on about $20 billion worth of Canadian-made products.