Update: 3:00 p.m. Ford Withdraws Electrical Surcharges
After speaking with Howard Lutnick, U.S. commerce secretary today, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that he will suspend his 25 per cent surcharge on electrical imports. “In any negotiation that we have, there’s a point that both parties are heated and the temperature needs to come down,” Mr. Ford told reporters, explaining why his position changed so drastically from earlier in the day. Ford will travel down to Washington with Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc to meet with Lutnick in the next few days in an attempt to turn the “temperature” down on the “tit-for-tat” tariff threats.
Trump Announces Massive Tariffs on Canadian Steel and Aluminum
Donald Trump escalated the trade war on Canada to new heights of lunacy today when the slapped 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. The ever-changing tariffs come in response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s announcement that he would be putting a 25 per cent surcharge on the province’s electrical exports to the U.S.
In a rambling 339-word post on Truth Social, the tempestuous president said that America’s response to Ford’s “abusive threat” would be raising the tariffs on steel and aluminum entering the U.S. form Canada to 50 per cent, making it “ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.”
Trump also promised he would “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” before moving on to his usual diatribe about our future as an indpenedent nation: “the only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford fired back against the president, and warned the governors of states that buy electricity from him, that he will “not back down.
“President Trump decided to have an unprovoked attack on our country on families on jobs. Let’s work together … and sort this out,” he said during an interview on MSNBC, one of his many appearances recently on U.S. cable networks.
Earlier in the day, Ford posted his game plan on X for dealing with the ever-changing trade bulletins coming out of Washington: “U.S. markets are tumbling because of President Trump’s tariffs. Prices are going up for hardworking Americans. He needs to drop the tariffs now, for good. Until he does, Ontario will stand firm.”
Investors on both sides of the border were struggling to make sense out of this trade confusion, which sent stocks tumbling throughout North America. Earlier this morning, Canada’s biggest exchange, the TSX, was down 400 points while the New York-based DOW, was off 900 points.
RELATED:
Trump Tariffs Sparked a “Buy Canadian” Surge, but Keeping the Trend Alive Will Take Some Work
Canada-U.S. History Provides Lessons On How Canada Can Deal With a Hostile Donald Trump
The Peak Dispatch: The Can-Am Tariff War Is On, and What That Means for Canadians
