Trump Lifts Some Canada Tariffs Days Before the Midterms: What's Exempt and Why

President Donald Trump signed an order on Friday removing 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods — effective October 30, just four days before the November 3 midterm elections. The move is aimed squarely at helping Maine Senator Susan Collins, a fellow Republican locked in a tight re-election fight in a state deeply dependent on trade with Canada.

What's exempt — and what's newly taxed

According to documents posted on the White House website, duties will be removed on products used in agriculture, including certain machinery and refrigeration products, plywood sheets, paper products, packaging and packing crates, and fresh and dried seaweed, the Wall Street Journal reports. Collins said the relief will aid Maine's blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed producers, "a vital part of our state's economy."

But this is not a broad tariff rollback — it is a swap. To offset the relief, Trump added a new batch of Canadian products to the 50% tariff list, including carpets, paints, shampoos, cocoa powder, wooden coffins, ice cream sticks, air-conditioning machines, chest freezers, archery equipment and canoes, according to Reuters. The net effect is targeted relief for Maine's economy, paid for with new duties elsewhere.

The politics: a Senate race on a knife's edge

Collins has broken with Trump on tariffs as she fights for re-election, and her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson has made the trade war with Canada a central campaign issue — the two sparred over tariffs at an October 6 debate and polls show them neck-and-neck heading into the final week. "I have asked for tariff relief for these important products and stressed the burdens additional costs impose on Maine businesses and families," Collins said in a statement praising the move.

The backdrop: Trump applied 50% tariffs in late August on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods — roughly 5% of Canada's exports to the US — after last-minute negotiations broke down. Canada retaliated with tariffs of its own, and Trump has threatened to double tariffs on Canadian vehicles in January if no broader agreement is reached. The tariff war has been rattling US markets all autumn — the report on Treasury yields' biggest plunge since the 2023 banking crisis captured the latest bout of nerves — while Canada itself has been politically turbulent, as the explainer on Alberta's separation referendum debate showed.

Whether surgical tariff relief four days before an election moves votes in Maine is the open question. What is not in doubt is the precedent: trade policy is now being visibly calibrated, product by product, to the electoral map.