On Wednesday, April 2, United States President Donald Trump announced a wide range of global tariffs, including reciprocal tariffs for countries that currently implement trade tariffs with the U.S.
For the past few months, the concept of tariffs has been all over the news with speculation and discussion over how these new tariffs would impact Canada and, specific to this audience, racehorses and the Standardbred industry.
Under the current Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), horses and horse-related business like semen were covered as trade compliant with the cross-border trade agreement, thus exempt from tariffs. Trump had proposed a sweeping 25 percent tariff on all goods entering the U.S. from Canada.
In Wednesday's announcement from Trump, Canada was not included in the reciprocal tariff list. Both goods from Canada and Mexico — the other CUSMA country — are still subject to a previously announced 25 percent tariff, but that tariff only applies to goods not covered in CUSMA.
Thus, for the time being, there is no tariff on racehorses and semen crossing the border from Canada into the U.S., and there is no tariff on horses and semen of U.S. origin coming into Canada for racing or breeding purposes.
Trot Insider will provide updates on the tariff situation should there be changes.
(Standardbred Canada)