From pony fur to bamboo furniture, Trump’s trade war with Canada is getting even weirder从马皮毛到竹制家具，特朗普与加拿大之间的贸易战变得越来越离奇。
What do pony fur, sequins, golf carts, bamboo furniture and mezcal have in common? Until Tuesday evening, not much. Now they’re among what could soon be unlikely casualties of President Donald Trump’s intensifying trade war with Canada.
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
What do pony fur, sequins, golf carts, bamboo furniture and mezcal have in common? Until Tuesday evening, not much. Now they’re among what could soon be unlikely casualties of President Donald Trump’s intensifying trade war with Canada .
The Trump administration added those items, among dozens of others, to a list of goods that could be subject to 50% tariffs — or outright banned — later this month if they’re imported into the United States from Canada to
The White House said the move was aimed both at Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, which took effect Tuesday, and what the administration calls Canada’s “discriminatory” treatment of American goods.
The new tariffs and import bans, it said on Tuesday, would help protect American workers, farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition.
There’s just one small problem: The United States barely buys many of the products on that list from Canada.
Laura Proctor/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Trump lays out next moves after Canada’s retaliatory tariffs take effect
For example, Trump’s Canadian import bans apply to virtually all alcoholic beverages, including mezcal, a product Canada can’t legally produce domestically because of Mexican labeling rules.
Pony fur falls under an umbrella category of animal furs that accounted for $468,330 of Canadian exports to the United States last year, according to US trade data. That’s roughly 0.0001% of the $334 billion worth of goods Canada exported to the United States.
So how did these goods land on Trump’s hit list?
A senior administration official said the items were deliberately chosen to lessen the financial hit for Americans. The products on the list aren’t ones the United States relies on Canada for, either because they are readily available domestically or can be imported from other trading partners.
“The possibility that this could have any kind of meaningful impact on US prices – it doesn’t even make mathematical sense,” the official said on a call with reporters Tuesday previewing the president’s trade actions.
Then there’s the symbolism. Trump included hockey sticks in his first round of tariffs on Canada that took effect last month — a nod to the sport that is deeply associated with Canadian identity. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by putting American-made golf clubs on his own tariff list, a nod to Trump’s favorite sport. Neither product is a major part of US-Canada trade.
Beyond the immediate economic impact, Trump’s latest list signals to Carney just how far he is willing to go and what could be next.
“President Trump’s import ban covers only 0.25% of Canada’s exports to the US and will have little effect on either economy,” Stephen Brown, chief economist at Capital Economics, said in a note Wednesday.
“Nonetheless, Trump’s willingness to impose an import ban is further evidence, if it were needed, that these latest measures are about inflicting economic pain [for Canada] rather than raising revenue,” he added. If that’s true, it would be a total 180 for Trump, who repeatedly said one of his top goals in imposing higher duties was to raise more revenue for the US government.
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
小马皮毛、亮片、高尔夫球车、竹制家具和龙舌兰酒有什么共同之处？直到周二晚上，它们之间似乎没什么联系。但现在，它们却可能成为唐纳德·特朗普总统与加拿大之间日益激烈的贸易战的意外受害者。
特朗普政府将这些商品（以及其他数十种商品）列入一份商品清单，如果这些商品从加拿大进口到美国，本月晚些时候可能会被征收50%的关税，甚至被彻底禁止进口。
白宫表示，此举既针对加拿大周二生效的报复性关税，也针对美国政府所称的加拿大对美国商品的“歧视性”待遇。
该机构周二表示，新的关税和进口禁令将有助于保护美国工人、农民和制造商免受外国竞争的影响。
但有一个小问题：美国几乎不从加拿大购买清单上的许多产品。
Laura Proctor/Bloomberg/Getty Images
加拿大采取报复性关税措施后，特朗普阐述下一步行动计划
例如，特朗普对加拿大的进口禁令几乎适用于所有酒精饮料，包括梅斯卡尔酒，由于墨西哥的标签规定，加拿大无法在国内合法生产这种产品。
根据美国贸易数据，小马皮属于动物皮毛这一大类，去年加拿大对美国的动物皮毛出口额为468,330美元。这大约占加拿大对美出口总额3340亿美元的0.0001%。
那么，这些商品是如何出现在特朗普的打击名单上的呢？
一位高级政府官员表示，这些商品是特意挑选出来的，目的是为了减轻美国民众的经济负担。清单上的商品并非美国依赖加拿大供应的产品，因为它们要么在国内很容易买到，要么可以从其他贸易伙伴进口。
这位官员周二在与记者通话时表示：“这有可能对美国物价产生任何有意义的影响——这甚至在数学上都说不通。”此次通话旨在预告总统的贸易措施。
此外，还有象征意义。特朗普在上个月生效的首轮对加拿大加征关税中，将冰球杆列入其中——这显然是在暗示这项与加拿大身份认同紧密相关的运动。加拿大总理马克·卡尼则以将美国制造的高尔夫球杆列入加征关税清单作为回应，这显然是在呼应特朗普最爱的运动。这两种产品都不是美加贸易的主要组成部分。
除了直接的经济影响之外，特朗普的最新名单也向卡尼表明了他愿意走多远，以及接下来可能会发生什么。
“特朗普总统的进口禁令仅涵盖加拿大对美国出口的0.25%，对两国经济的影响微乎其微，”凯投宏观首席经济学家斯蒂芬·布朗周三在一份报告中表示。
“然而，特朗普愿意实施进口禁令，这进一步证明（如果还需要证明的话），这些最新措施的目的是为了给加拿大造成经济损失，而不是为了增加财政收入，”他补充道。如果真是这样，那对特朗普来说将是彻底的180度大转弯，因为他曾多次表示，提高关税的首要目标之一就是为美国政府增加财政收入。