'We will not stand for this. Watch!' - Trump imposes immediate 20 percent tariff on Canada

'[W]e can't let Canada or anybody else take advantage and do what they did to our workers and to our farmers.'

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs up to 24 percent on Canadian lumber shipped into the United States.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Monday, "It has been a bad week for U.S.-Canada trade relations."

The U.S. and Canada have been preparing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump has publicly criticized.

Canada has held a high tariff on imported dairy products, which leaves American dairy farmers unable to sell their products to the country.

When Trump's attempts to sway Canada's dairy tariff, he took to Twitter to say: "Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!"

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ross explained: "We tried to negotiate a settlement but we were unable."

Now, Canada is facing tariffs effective immediately on its imported softwood lumber to the United States.

Ross said his department reached a preliminary decision to impose the tax as a tough measure to punish Canada after Trump stated last week, "[W]e can't let Canada or anybody else take advantage and do what they did to our workers and to our farmers."

Ross added, "What we are doing is dealing with another bad act on the part of the Canadians."

Though the tariff still requires a final review by the International Trade Commission, U.S. Customs and Border Protection can begin collecting from Canadian importers immediately.

Ross announced a possible $1 billion in tariffs and $250 retroactive collections, from the last 90 days, from four of five Canadian softwood lumber companies previously under scrutiny beneath the Obama Administration.

The tariff is set at 19.88 percent on the softwood lumber imports, which is the fourth largest export from Canada to the United States following oil, gas and vehicles.

A spokesperson from Resolute FP Canada, one of the four who will be fined, stated: "Managed trade only serves to benefit large timber barons in the U.S. while adversely impacting U.S. consumers and millions of hard-working Americans in the housing sector."

Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr released a joint statement in which they declared, "The government of Canada disagrees strongly with the U.S. Department of Commerce's decision to impose an unfair and punitive duty."

The U.S. timber industry has claimed for decades that Canada subsidizes its lumber products, with Canada claiming it wasn't true.

Cameron Krauss, the legal chair for the U.S. Lumber Coalition, released a statement, simply saying: "Today's ruling confirms that Canadian lumber mills are subsidized by their government and benefit from lumber pricing policies."

Resolute denied it is subsidized and said the allegations were "baseless and unfounded," but that hasn't stopped the United States from imposing the 20 percent tariff, effective immediately.

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