Trump escalates trade war; doubles tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum
US President Donald Trump escalated his trade war with Canada on Tuesday, doubling the US’s existing 25% tariffs on its northern neighbor’s steel and aluminum exports to 50% after the leader of the Canadian province of Ontario said he would add a 25% levy on electricity sold to 1.5 million American customers.
In a post in all-caps on his Truth Social social media platform, Trump called Canada “one of the highest-tariffed countries in the world.” The president said the doubled US steel and aluminum tariffs would go into effect Wednesday morning.
In addition, Trump demanded that Ottawa “immediately remove the 250% to 390% Anti-American Farmer Tariffs on a variety of US dairy products, which have long been considered outrageous.” Trump ignited an economic war last week with Canada, traditionally a staunch ally and the US’s second-largest trading partner after Mexico, by first imposing and then postponing for a month a 25% tariff on all products exported to the United States.
Trump said he was pressing Canada to further curb the flow of migrants and illegal drugs, especially the deadly opioid fentanyl, into the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was raising the steel and aluminum tariffs because “Canada has been cheating the United States and hard-working Americans for decades.” Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau retaliated by announcing tariffs on U.S. exports. Then, Ontario premier Doug Ford said that starting Monday, he would charge 25% more for electricity Ontario sends to residential and business customers in the three northern U.S. states that border Canada: Michigan, Minnesota and New York.
“I will not hesitate to raise these rates. If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to cut off the power completely,” Ford said at a news conference in Toronto. He added, “Believe me when I say I don’t want to do this. I feel sorry for the American people, who didn’t start this trade war. There’s only one person responsible. President Trump.” With the addition of Canadian tariffs, U.S. household electricity bills in the three states would increase by about $69 per month, Ford said. Leavitt called Ford’s comments “horrible and insulting.”
In a social media post, Trump responded that he would “immediately declare a National Power Emergency in the threatened areas. This will allow the U.S. to immediately do what must be done to defuse this vicious threat from Canada.”
“If the other old, horrible Tariffs are not removed by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Automobiles coming into the U.S. that will essentially permanently shut down Canadian auto manufacturing,” Trump said. “Those cars can easily be made in the U.S.!”
Trump also renewed his plan to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.
“This will make all Tariffs, and everything else, completely go away,” he said. “Canadians’ taxes will be substantially reduced, they will be safer, militarily and otherwise, than they have ever been, there will be no more Northern Border issues, and the greatest and most powerful country in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — and Canada will be a big part of that.”
He suggested that Canada’s national anthem, “O Canada,” could still be sung, “but now representing the GREAT and STRONG COUNTRY within the greatest Country the World has ever seen!”
Trump’s trade-tariff war with Canada and Mexico, which he also ratcheted up last week with new 25% tariffs on exports before suspending them, has unnerved Wall Street.
Source: VOA
