United States President Donald Trump says he is considering imposing tariffs on Canadian dairy and lumber, possibly as early as today.

In an address from the Oval Office on Friday, he continued to assert that other countries have been unfair to the U.S. in areas such as farming and said the U.S. would be reciprocating with tariffs.

“That’s what reciprocal means. And we may do it as early as today,” he said. “Or we’ll wait till Monday or Tuesday, but that’s what we’re going to do.”

During the 30-minute address and question period, Trump said his policies are aimed at bringing factories lost during the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) back to the U.S.

And on dairy and lumber, he said Canada “has been ripping us off for years.”

An Ottawa-based trade lawyer said Trump’s assertions were troubling.

“The lumber piece is particularly egregious given the already punitive and unjustified antidumping and anti-subsidy (countervailing) duties in place on Canadian lumber flowing into the United States,” said William Pellerin, a partner in the international trade practice at law firm McMillan LLP, who once served as deputy director of trade remedies and North America trade at Global Affairs Canada.

Pellerin said that when it comes to the dairy threat, Trump could be reacting to a U.S. loss in 2023 when that country challenged access to dairy quotas in Canada under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

Canada made minor adjustments after a successful U.S. challenge in 2022 but a subsequent challenge claiming Canada still fell short of meeting its obligations was rejected.

“The U.S. is displeased on how this all turned out for them,” he said.

During Trump’s address, he was asked by a reporter whether he would stop making sudden shifts in trade and tariff policies since it spooked markets that thrive on stability. The president said he would not stop.

“There’ll always be changes and adjustments,” he said, adding that if he committed to making no changes, he would not have been able to give automakers a month’s reprieve on tariffs on Wednesday.

Trump sparked a trade war Tuesday by slapping 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, only to delay them two days later until April 2.

On Friday, he said it’s “going to cost a lot of money” to have the tariffs kick in on the second of the month rather than the first.

“I wanted it to be the first so badly; it just didn’t work to be on April Fool’s Day,” he said.

The tariffs on lumber and dairy, if imposed, appear to be in addition to what has been previously announced.

Trump’s comments on exports strike a very different tone than a U.S. government fact sheet on CUSMA, which was negotiated in 2018 and put fully in force in 2020.

It said the agreement would advance the interests of American farmers, rangers and agribusinesses by opening new markets for exports and supporting manufacturing and rural jobs. It touted increased access for U.S. dairy products, including larger quotas than in previous trade agreements for milk, cheese and butter.

Many food and agricultural products have not attracted tariffs since the North American Free Trade Agreement that preceded CUSMA.

The current trade pact is to be revisited next year, but Trump has sought to ignore key parts of the agreement with a torrent of tariff threats launched shortly after he took office in January.

Clifford Sosnow, a partner and trade specialist at law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, said the three-country trade pact lays out a process that would allow the U.S. president to request of either his Canadian or Mexican counterparts that these negotiations be moved up to an earlier date, something that can be done by mutual agreement.

“(This) process that was put in place precisely to enable the discussion, negotiation and resolution of any items or issues of concern,” he said, declining to discuss Trump’s latest tariff threats.

“We are in waiting mode to see what actually transpires,” he said.

• Email: bshecter@postmedia.com

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