A fake chart is doing the rounds of Facebook, Twitter and many alt-right pro-Trump websites, which suggests that Canada is charging the USA large and unfair tariffs on various imported items.
The chart (here is a version on Twitter with the true figures superimposed) shows, which purports to be based on figures from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the US International Trade Commission, and the Canadian Minster of International Trade, first appeared after the recent Group of Seven summit in Quebec, when Donald Trump started make all sorts of allegations against Justin Trudeau. It shows a whole host of random false Canadian tariffs - such as 48% on copper; 45% on aluminum, HVAC equipment and televisions: 35% on vacuums and cable boxes; and 25% on cars and steel - none of which actually exist in reality. It also shows falsely low US tariffs on its own exports.
Like so much false news, it is not clear who is actually responsible for the chart, although it is wrong in so many ways (including sloppy spelling mistakes) that it is clearly cooked up by an amateur to back up Donald Trump's narrative on Canadian-US trade, and provide ammunition for Trump supporters in the run-up to the mid-terms elections later this year.
The Globe and Mail pointed out the errors to a few websites who are complicit in distributing these trade fibs, but none of them has actually changed their site. No doubt, the fake news will do its job, and then fade into obscurity, leaving the truth (and the American and Canadian people, not to mention international trade in general) the real victims.
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