Trump &…1)LeBlanc heading back to Washington after Trump threatens new tariffs; 2)Forced labour or leverage: What Trump’s new tariffs are really about; 3)(Updated) Gordie Howe bridge opens to cars after months of cross-border controversy

1)LeBlanc heading back to Washington after Trump threatens new tariffs

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kelly Geraldine Malone, July 28, 2026.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc speaking at a meeting with Canadian premiers

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to travel to Washington this week after United States President Donald Trump threatened to slap new tariffs on an array of Canadian goods starting next month.

LeBlanc’s spokesperson Gabriel Brunet said Tuesday the minister will be joined by Janice Charette, Canada’s chief trade negotiator. Brunet did not say exactly when LeBlanc and Charette will be in Washington or identify the officials they are meeting.

The meetings in the U.S. capital come as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Canada in advance of formal talks on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA.

The Trump administration said last week it would impose 50 per cent tariffs on certain Canadian goods in response to provincial liquor bans, Canada’s dairy supply management system and certain automobile quotas.

Unlike many of Trump’s other tariffs, the new duties will have no exemptions for goods compliant under CUSMA.

The continental trade pact has shielded Canada and Mexico from many of the president’s tariffs but Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the agreement’s future.

The president told Fox News Tuesday that he doesn’t “really want to” update the trade agreement, adding, “I’d rather be independent.”

“Mexico and Canada need us. We don’t need them,” he said. “The deal is important for them. It’s not important for us.”

During LeBlanc’s last trip to Washington in June, which saw him meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the minister said that Canada was looking for a 16-year extension to the trade agreement. LeBlanc and Greer met again on the sidelines of the G7 in France later that month.

But at the beginning of July, the Trump administration announced it was not extending the trilateral trade agreement. That triggered annual rolling reviews that could last for up to a decade — at which point CUSMA would expire unless all three countries agreed to an extension.

Mexico and Washington have started official CUSMA negotiations but Ottawa has not yet started formal talks.

Members of Trump’s trade team have described Mexican negotiators as pragmatic but have complained about the Canadians being difficult.

In the weeks since LeBlanc’s last trip to Washington, Canada has faced a barrage of U.S. tariff threats linked to wildfire smoke and the Trump administration temporarily blocked the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Ontario and Michigan.

Citing forced labour in supply chains, Greer announced new duties on Canada and dozens of other countries last week — hours before a different stopgap tariff authority was set to expire.

Greer, however, has indicated he’s working towards a CUSMA extension. Trump’s trade czar told a Senate finance hearing last week that he hopes to provide “options” by the end of the year to Trump, Canada and Mexico on renewing the continental trade pact.

“I would love to have between now and the end the year at least some arrangements — one with Canada, one with Mexico,” Greer said July 22.

“And then some of these issues that are really important — like rules of origin, I know labour environment’s important to a lot of folks here — that take a little more time, to have further discussion of that, including with Congress, in the following year.”

— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa

2)Forced labour or leverage: What Trump’s new tariffs are really about

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kelly Geraldine Malone, July 24, 2026

The Trump administration says it’s hitting Canada and dozens of other countries with double-digit tariffs because they’re not doing enough to fight forced labour — but not everyone is convinced.

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the new duties Thursday, just hours before a different stopgap tariff authority was set to expire.

Many observers say the rushed trade investigations into forced labour show it’s only a pretext allowing U.S. President Donald Trump to rebuild his tariff wall around the United States.

Canada is being lumped in with countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka that are getting hit with 10 per cent duties, while other countries face a 12.5 per cent levy.

Scott Lincicome of the Washington-based Cato Institute said that while forced labour needs to be stamped out, the Trump administration’s justification is a “sham.”

In an analysis published Thursday, Lincicome wrote the findings of the trade investigations were clearly predetermined and the “remedy is both ridiculously blunt and wildly out of proportion.”

The Trump administration launched trade investigations earlier this year through Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 after the U.S. Supreme Court in February struck down the tariff tool Trump used for his “Liberation Day” and fentanyl-related duties.

To temporarily replace his tariffs, Trump used Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 for a 10 per cent global duty. That statute was set to expire Friday — the same time the new 301 tariffs went into effect.

“The Americans need the threat of tariffs to force other countries to accept new American trade demands,” said Carlo Dade, director of international policy and the New North America Initiative at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

Dade said the 301 tariffs are a means to get countries to agree to higher tariffs going forward.

Several of the countries targeted — India, the United Kingdom and Cambodia, to name three — already have agreements on reciprocal trade with the Trump administration. These new tariffs are likely meant to pressure countries to stick to those agreements or — in the case of countries like Canada — sign new ones with the United States.

“Once countries agree, the rationale (of forced labour) is no longer needed,” Dade said in an email.

The Canadian government previously told the Trump administration that new legislation on forced labour in supply chains should shield Canada from the new tariffs.

Canada already had legislation in place to curb forced labour in supply chains which requires annual reports to the federal government. The federal government tabled a bill last month, C-35, to boost enforcement.

C-35 would create a public list of products that have been linked to forced labour in specific regions, based on intelligence from embassies and other authorities. It would require importers to prove that specific products from listed regions were not made through slavery.

While Canada has been accused domestically of not doing enough to enforce its forced labour laws, some observers point out that its efforts are miles ahead of other nations hit with the same U.S. tariffs.

Former Liberal MP John McKay has said the United States accusing Canada of winking at forced labour amounts to “hypocrisy heaped on hypocrisy.”

The United States allows private firms to produce exports made with prison labour. McKay also accused the Trump administration of letting enforcement slide on a Joe Biden-era law called the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act.

Jamie Tronnes of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, a project of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said the Trump administration is seeking leverage in trade talks with Canada through the forced labour tariff.

The new tariffs do not apply to goods compliant under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA. Tronnes said the message from Washington is clear: “It shows Canada that if (CUSMA) goes away entirely, that Canada is looking at a best-case scenario of 10 per cent tariffs.”

“While we don’t know what the tariff proposals are behind the scenes, the idea may be to push Canada to accept an American tariff on goods in exchange for a lower than 10 per cent rate,” she said in an email.

Even if Canada meets all the Trump administration’s demands on forced labour in supply chains, experts say it’s unlikely the tariffs will go away entirely.

Like all of Trump’s tariffs, these new duties are likely to be challenged in court — but they could prove to be harder to knock down than the previous ones.

Trump used Section 301 to impose big tariffs on China in his first term, and they survived court challenges.

Canadian businesses won’t see much of an immediate change with the new tariffs, Tronnes said. While the justification for Trump’s tariffs shifted Friday, the tariff level on Canada remained the same.

But the new tariff threats may affect the ongoing review of the continental trade pact.

Trump on Monday ramped up pressure on Canada by threatening to impose 50 per cent tariffs on an array of Canadian goods next month, using Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he spoke with Trump Tuesday and they agreed to intensify trade negotiations.

Tronnes said it’s clear the Trump administration is doubling down on tariffing all of America’s largest trading partners, regardless of trade surpluses or existing free-trade agreements.

“The president has repeatedly demonstrated that he is willing to use tariffs on countries that have already made deals with him, and, with the new 338 tariffs, that he is willing to override even free trade agreements that have been ratified by Congress.”

— With files from Kyle Duggan in Ottawa and The Associated Press

3)(Updated) Gordie Howe bridge opens to cars after months of cross-border controversy

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, July 27, 2026.

Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan over the Detroit River.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge has openedto motorists after months of controversy over financial aspects of the project.

Officials announced in a post on social media that the Howe family crossed first, in honour of the bridge’s Canadian-American hockey namesake.

Minutes later, another post marked the crossing of the first commercial truck, a vehicle from a trucking company in Tecumseh, Ont., that is carrying auto parts to Michigan.

U.S. President Donald Trump insisted in a social media post in February that the United States would have to be compensated before he would allow the bridge to open.

He falsely claimed the $6.4-billion structure connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit was built with virtually no American content.

Canada subsequently agreed to make some adjustments concerning the sharing of revenues. Prime Minister Mark Carney later said he could have been more clear about the terms of the deal, as Conservative critics accused him of bending to Trump’s administration.

Canada held a ceremony last week to help mark the opening of the bridge, but a joint celebration with the United States was cancelled over Washington’s recent threat of new tariffs on Canadian goods.

American officials said the new levies are a response to provincial bans on U.S. alcohol, Canada’s supply-managed dairy system and quotas on American cars.

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, welcomed the milestone Monday, saying the bridge will add “new capacity to one of the busiest and most economically significant border crossings between the United States and Canada.”

The bridge over the Detroit River, named for the Canadian hockey icon known to some as “Mr. Hockey,” is expected to serve as a critical route for trade, jobs and tourism between Canada and the U.S.

More than 70 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. For nearly a century, the privately owned Ambassador Bridge has been the only route for large commercial trucks moving between the U.S. and Canada at Detroit.

Businesses say the new six-lane span will be faster and less expensive.

Construction on the bridge began in 2018 but took years, partly due to a global slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, said the project is a powerful example of collaboration between governments and communities.

The business council has anticipated that the bridge would strengthen competitiveness on both sides of the border, supporting jobs and investments, since it was first announced in 2012, Hyder said in a statement.

— With files from The Associated Press