Collins urges US to return to trade talks with Canada

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Thursday again pressed for the U.S. to return to talks with Canada amid the escalating trade war between two countries.

Collins, who previously criticized the 50 percent tit-for-tat tariffs both countries imposed after negotiations failed last weekend, said in a post on the social platform X on Thursday afternoon that she appreciated “Canada’s decision to remove seafood and fish products from its retaliatory tariff list” — calling on the U.S. to take the move as an olive branch.

“These tariffs would have caused tremendous harm to Maine’s lobstermen, disrupting one of their most important markets during the fall fishing season,” the Maine senator said. “I urge the U.S. to respond to this show of good faith from our Canadian friends by returning to the negotiating table and working to amicably resolve this trade dispute.”

In a post on X late Wednesday, Canada’s Department of Finance said it would draw back its proposed retaliatory tariffs on seafood, set to begin on Sept. 8, given the threat of “broader economic harms.”

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney removed his country’s negotiators from trade discussions with the U.S., causing a fresh round of Trump administration tariffs to go into effect.

Carney’s move came after weeks of intense negotiations between Washington and Ottawa about President Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on more than $20 billion in Canadian goods.

On Tuesday, Canada unveiled retaliatory tariffs targeting hundreds of American products at rates as high as 50 percent. Canada’s Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Ottawa would match U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar, rate for rate.”

Champagne said the 15 percent, 25 percent and 50 percent tariffs would impact $27.6 billion of American imports.

“For each product, our tariff will match the American tariff on the same type of Canadian good,” he said.