Ontario’s Doug Ford has agreed to back down on the 25% tariffs he was going to impose on electricity after President Trump threatened to double the tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from Canada yesterday.
Here’s the news:
AP – The premier of Canada’s most populous province said Tuesday he was suspending the 25% surcharge that Ontario imposed earlier this week on electricity exports to the United States after speaking with the U.S. Commerce Secretary and agreeing to meet with him in Washington.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have agreed to meet on Thursday to “discuss a renewed” United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline.
“They call you and they hand over an olive branch, the worst thing I could do as premier of Ontario is ignore him and hang up the phone on him,” Ford said.
As a result, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said later Tuesday that Trump pulled back on his doubling tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, even as the federal government still plans to place a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports starting Wednesday.
Trump said he appreciated Ford suspending the surcharge on electricity exports.
“There’s a very strong man in Canada who said he was going to charge a surcharge, or a tariff, on electricity coming into our country. He has called and said he’s not going to do that,” Trump said. “It would have been a very bad thing if he did. And he’s not going to do that. And I respect that.”
Ford also apologized to the American people, according to the NY Post:
“I want to apologize to the American people. I spent 20 years of my life in the US, in New Jersey, in Chicago. I love the American people. I absolutely love them,” Ford told hosts John Catsimitides and Rita Cosby.
“We’re going to get through this. We’re stronger together. We’ll always be united,” the Canadian premier added.
Ford gave insight into his negotiations with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on whom he heaped praise, along with President Trump.
“Secretary Lutnick and President Trump are brilliant businesspeople. They are hard negotiators. We need to put this behind us and move forward and build the two strongest countries in the world,” Ford said.
The Ontario premier further characterized the conversations with the Trump administration as positive and heading in a productive direction.