Canada’s Carney Puts Tariffs on U.S.-Made Cars as Stellantis Plant Pauses Production

Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada had introduced a 25 percent tariff on cars and trucks made in the United States in retaliation for the tariffs that went into effect Thursday morning on Canadian vehicles.

Five hours before the tariffs imposed by President Trump took effect, the automaker Stellantis told the union representing workers at its minivan and muscle car factory in Windsor, Ontario, that the plant would close Monday for two weeks so it could assess the effects of the tariffs, idling about 3,600 employees.

Mr. Carney estimated that Canada would collect about $5.7 billion from the retaliatory tariffs he said it was imposing — on top of the $42 billion or so he said Canada would generate from the tariffs it imposed on March 4. That money, Mr. Carney said, would go toward helping workers and businesses affected by the U.S. tariffs.

“We take these measures reluctantly,” Mr. Carney said at a news conference after a meeting with Canada’s premiers. “And we take them in ways that’s intended and will cause maximum impact in the United States and minimum impact here in Canada.”

He added, “We can do better than the United States. Exactly where that comes out depends on how much damage they do to their economy.”

Canada’s tariffs, Mr. Carney said, would exclude auto parts, and the country would still allow companies that make cars in Canada — Stellantis, Ford, General Motors, Honda and Toyota — to import vehicles built in the United States without paying tariffs.

Mr. Trump has also imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Autos and auto parts are Canada’s largest export by value aside from oil and gas. Canada is the largest importer of cars and trucks made in the United States, and auto factories in Canada send upward of 90 percent of their production to the United States. Overall, trade in autos between the two countries tends to be balanced, though in some years the United States has a slight surplus.

The move by Stellantis to close its factory so quickly after tariffs went into effect shocked people in Windsor, an auto making city that is across a river from Detroit. For months experts and auto industry executives had warned that factory closings would come within weeks, not days, of any U.S. auto tariffs.

Few industries in Canada are as entwined as the auto sector is with the United States. The integration began in 1965, when the countries entered into an auto trade agreement.

Because of that, James Stewart, the president of the Unifor union local that represents the Stellantis workers in Windsor, said that the two-week shutdown would likely lead to layoffs at U.S. factories that supply the Canadian assembly line with parts. He estimated that American parts made up at least half the value of the Windsor-built minivans.

The U.S. auto tariffs against Canada, Mr. Stewart said, have no justification and will not revive American industry.

“We’re not a jurisdiction that has taken any jobs from the U.S.,” Mr. Stewart said. “We have lost jobs to low-paying jurisdictions just like they have.”

Like many people in the city, Mr. Stewart, who has family in the United States border, said he was angered by Mr. Trump’s move.

“I didn’t ever think that a country that’s been a number one ally to and trading partner would go on the attack against us like this — ever,” he said.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, which is home to all of Canada’s auto plants, said he had told Stellantis that the Windsor factory “should be up and running.”

More than 50,000 people are estimated to be directly involved making autos or auto parts in the Windsor area.

Stellantis and LG of South Korea are jointly constructing a large battery factory in the city with billions of dollars in financial assistance from the federal and provincial governments, part of an effort to reverse the loss of auto industry investment in Canada to the United States and Mexico.

While the sweeping tariffs announced by Mr. Trump on Wednesday excluded Canada, Mr. Carney still denounced them, saying they would “rupture the global economy and adversely affect global economic growth.”

Mr. Carney said he would try to assemble a “coalition of like-minded countries” looking for an alternative to the United States.

“If the United States no longer wants to lead, Canada will,” he said.

Mr. Carney later added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. While this is a tragedy, it is also the new reality.”