Trump To Lower Canada Tariffs For Certain Agricultural Goods, Collins Says

President Donald Trump will soften his Canadian tariffs that are hurting Maine’s agriculture industry, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced on Friday, a last-minute boost for the incumbent as she tries to fend off a serious Democratic challenge in November.

Collins said the Trump administration would lower its 50% tariffs on nine categories of products used by Maine’s agriculture industry, including some paper goods, plastic boxes, some packing supplies, refrigeration and freezing equipment and seaweed and edible algae.

“These producers are a vital part of our state’s economy and support our rural and coastal communities,” Collins said in a press release. “Many of our farmers and growers rely on specialized equipment, packaging materials, and other products from Canada that are either unavailable from American suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense.”

A person familiar with the discussions said that the overall amount of the tariffs on Canadian goods will remain unchanged, they will just be transferred to different items. The tariffs will instead hit around 100 new categories of products, including cocoa powder, shampoos, carpets, canoes and wooden coffins, according to the executive order the White House released Friday afternoon.

The person added that the goal was to give Collins an electoral win without changing the U.S.’s overall posture toward Canada.

It’s unclear how much the relief will improve Collins’ reelection odds. While she has criticized Trump’s double-digit tariffs on neighboring Canada as well as the White House’s broader trade agenda, Democrat Troy Jackson continues to hammer her on the issue on the campaign trail.

Jackson did not let up in a post on social media responding to the announcement Friday afternoon, saying Collins “enabled this chaos” by voting to confirm the Trump administration officials behind the tariffs and compared the relief to a “bringing a cup of water to put out the fire.”

“Mainers needed help long before Susan Collins needed saving. But apparently, families struggling to pay their bills wasn’t enough of an emergency. Her losing her job is,” Jackson wrote in a post on X. “We deserve a Senator who stands up to Trump—not one who rubber-stamps his agenda and begs for relief from the chaos she helped create.”

Matthew Gagnon, CEO of the Maine Policy Institute, a free-market think tank, doubted Trump’s tariff move would have much impact. The Senate race has “been so hotly contested with so much money, and there's been so many ads run, and so much has been solidified that I think it is unlikely that any kind of announcement like this makes a major difference,” Gagnon said. “The one thing it probably does do is remind people that Senator Collins is powerful in Washington.”

However, two people familiar with the action, granted anonymity to share details of the carveouts, said the administration is betting the move will help Collins’ chances of keeping her seat.

Even this late in the game, “it will help because it demonstrates her ability to fix problems for Mainers,” said one of those people, a Republican close to the White House.

Collins previously touted her role in convincing the Trump administration to exempt road salt, heavily used in wintry states that border Canada, as well as imported cement that fuels northern construction projects when the White House rolled out the initial duties in August.

A third person with knowledge of the carveout, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said the new exemptions have been in the works for more than a month. Collins had discussions with both Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in the past few days as they finalized the move.

“The President is taking action in response to Canada’s continued discrimination against and additional retaliation targeting U.S. commerce, with the goal of protecting American farmers, manufacturers, and workers,” said White House spokesman Matthew Middleton. “This administration will continue to use every available tool to restore reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships and safeguard the economic prosperity and national security of the American people.”

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

At a rally in Fort Meyers, Florida on Friday, Trump said it would be “stupid” to remove his tariffs, broadly.

"You know the radical left watchers say, 'Oh, take the tariffs off,'” Trump said. “Yeah, take the tariffs off. Watch, watch every factory leave America. Take them off and watch everybody say ‘bye bye, you stupid people.’"

As Democrats eye a wave election, with Senate races in states like Kansas and Texas coming into play, the race between Jackson and Collins remains intensely competitive. A Fox News poll released Thursday had the race tied, while a Suffolk University poll released October 14 had Jackson up two percentage points.

Earlier Friday, Trump had said he was close to trade deals with Canada and Mexico, even as his administration continues to lob barbs at Ottawa, most recently accusing them of engaging in election interference.

“We’re close to a deal with Mexico, it’ll be a very good deal, for hopefully them, but it’s got to be a good deal for us or we won’t make it,” Trump told reporters Friday. “The same thing with Canada. Canada is working very hard to make a deal with us. And I hate to say this but we have all the cards, in both of them.”

Peter Navarro, senior trade counselor to Trump, said in an interview Thursday that there is a path back to the negotiating table for Canada, after talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government blew up in August. Three days after Trump suggested the two sides had reached a deal in principle, Carney called his negotiators home, prompting the White House to hike tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Ottawa responded in kind in early September, and the two sides have been locked in a trade stand off ever since.

“Look, the hallmark of this administration is that we will talk anytime to anybody, and we will be reasonable,” Navarro said.

Carney has continued to speak with Trump and said on Friday Canada is “ready to drop everything, sit down, and negotiate this afternoon if the Americans are ready in good faith.”

When asked whether the two countries would strike a deal before the midterms, Carney said it’s up to the U.S. “They’re a little hard to predict,” he said.

Collins’ tariff reduction announcement is the latest effort by GOP candidates to insulate themselves from Trump’s increasingly unpopular trade war with Canada and other traditional allies. Democrats have used the president’s tariffs to attack Republicans in states with key Senate races deep economic ties across the northern border, including Maine, Michigan and New Hampshire.

Earlier this month, Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers released an ad calling for an end to the trade war between Canada and the U.S.

Jordain Carney contributed reporting.