Trump Delays 50% Canada Tariffs Three Days, Revives Keystone XL

U.S. President Donald Trump suspended for three days the 50% tariffs on Canadian imports, which were set to take effect on August 19 and will now apply from Saturday the 22nd, according to Expansión. The White House tied the preliminary agreement with Canada to the reactivation of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The levies cover approximately $20 billion in imports, roughly 5.2% of the goods the United States purchased from Canada in 2025, according to Expansión. Washington announced them under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which permits tariffs of up to 50% against practices it considers discriminatory: restrictions on the sale of American beverages, quotas on cheeses, and the treatment of automobiles and auto parts. The tariffs reach even goods that comply with USMCA rules, although they exclude energy, potash, critical minerals, and products subject to other sectoral tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed the extension without mentioning the pipeline: "Substantial progress was made, though significant work remains to be done," he said in a statement, according to Aristegui Noticias. The gap between both messages leaves the true scope of the agreement an open question.

The pipeline was designed to run 1,947 kilometers between Alberta and Nebraska, with the capacity to transport up to 830,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude toward the network supplying refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Trump authorized the border crossing during his first term; Joe Biden revoked the permit in January 2021 on climate grounds, TC Energy cancelled the project, and the Alberta government ended its partnership. Any eventual revival requires new permits, investment, route agreements, and consultations with affected communities. For the region, the pipeline targets the same Gulf refining corridor that processes Mexican crude.

The new deadline is Saturday, August 22, at 00:01; if Washington and Ottawa do not finalize the documents before then, the 50% tariffs will take effect. The key question is whether the final text of the agreement includes Keystone XL or whether the pipeline remains a parallel negotiation.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.