The United States early Tuesday began enforcing a ban on nearly $1 billion worth of selected Canadian imports — including alcoholic beverages, whey and other dairy byproducts, molasses and motorcycles — deepening an 18-month trade confrontation between Washington and Ottawa.

The Associated Press and CBC report the prohibitions took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern. American Action Forum trade analyst Jacob Jensen estimated the covered goods at about $967 million based on 2025 trade, with alcohol accounting for roughly 87% of that value after Canadian provinces pulled U.S. liquor from store shelves. Bombardier Recreational Products said its Can-Am Spyder and Canyon three-wheel motorcycles will be barred from U.S. import, though most of this season’s shipments already moved. The New York Post (opens in new tab) counts 68 tariff classifications across the three measures — 53 for alcoholic beverages, 14 under the dairy-related action and one for motorcycles — and notes that Canadian cheese is not banned and that many alcohol lines apply only to “Packaged” products. The Post reports the motorcycle ban covers a single classification, for engines larger than 800cc; the BBC, citing Statistics Canada, says Canada sent about 5,000 motorcycles worth about C$120 million to the U.S. in 2025.

President Donald Trump framed the bans as punishment for Canadian retaliation after earlier U.S. tariffs and said Monday he expected Ottawa to return to the table. The BBC reports the bans stem from executive orders Trump signed Sept. 8 — which USTR and the New York Post (opens in new tab) describe as actions under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — in which he said the measures respond to “continued discrimination” by Canada on U.S. dairy, autos and alcohol. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a Sept. 8 statement that Canada had “walked away from a near-final trade deal” and called the measures “a natural consequence” of its treatment of U.S. exports. In a CNBC interview last week, quoted by CBC and the BBC, Greer said of Canada: “there’s no urgency on our side.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the measures “relatively modest” compared with broader tariff rounds, and the BBC reports Canada is not expected to retaliate further. “There is now a price to be paid for access to the United States market,” Carney said earlier this month, according to the AP, which reports he wants to double Canada’s non-U.S. trade over the next decade. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office said Ottawa’s priority is protecting workers and diversifying trade.

Economists note the bans are a small slice of roughly $880 billion in annual two-way trade. Scotiabank economist Derek Holt wrote in a Sept. 9 note to investors, quoted by CBC, that “these actions are face-saving by the U.S. administration, not substantive in nature and that’s a positive.” Estimates of the alcohol trade at stake differ: the BBC says the ban covers nearly C$1 billion of Canadian liquor exported to the U.S., while CBC, describing Holt’s analysis, says around $1.2 billion of Canadian alcohol was sent to the U.S. last year. About 93% of Canada’s 2025 liquor exports went to the U.S., the BBC reports. The Distilled Spirits Council, representing U.S. liquor producers, wrote that the ban “will ripple throughout the US hospitality sector” as businesses gear up for the holiday season, according to the BBC. In Canada, Spirits Canada CEO Cal Bricker told the Toronto Star (opens in new tab), “We urge both sides to return to the table as soon as possible to resolve the dispute so we can return to free trade in spirits in North America.” Moosehead CEO Andrew Oland told the Star the ban has meant a rush to beat the deadline. Trade lawyer Barry Appleton of New York Law School told CBC that bans are typically harder to unwind than tariffs.

The dispute sits atop 50% U.S. duties on Canadian goods — on roughly $28 billion of goods, according to CBC, or about $20 billion of imports, according to the AP — along with Canadian counter-tariffs that the New York Post (opens in new tab) puts at $19.5 billion of U.S. goods and provincial liquor boycotts of American brands. Renewal of the USMCA trade pact remains clouded as both capitals dig in.