TORONTO (AP) – The prime minister of Canada’s most populous province said he was suspended on Tuesday 25% extra charge Ontario placed it on electricity exports to the US earlier this week after speaking with the US Secretary of Commerce and agreeing to meet him in Washington.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford with him US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick They agreed to meet on Thursday and discussed the “updated” US-Mexico-Canada rally ahead of the April 2nd mutual tariff deadline for US President Donald Trump.
“They call you, they hand over the olive branches. The worst thing I can do as Prime Minister Ontario is to ignore him and hang up him,” Ford said.
As a result, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Tuesday that Trump has pulled back double fees for Canadian steel and aluminum, despite the federal government’s plans to place a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from Wednesday.
Trump said he is grateful to Ford for stopping the additional charges for electricity exports.
“We have a very strong guy in Canada who said he’d charge an extra charge or tariff on electricity coming to our country. He called and said he wasn’t going to do that,” Trump said. “If he did, it would have been a very bad thing. And he’s not going to do that, and I respect that.”
Trump has continued to ask Canada to become the 51st state, the position that infuriated Canadians. Trump suggested he would not respect the border, saying it was “an artificial line that appears to have been done in the ruler.”
Trump On Tuesday he said he would double him. Planned tariffs Canada has escalated a trade war with its US north neighbours for 25% to 50% steel and aluminum, indicating indifference to recent stock market turmoil and rising recession.
Trump said on social media the rise of Customs The state government is set to take effect on Wednesday. Ontario is electricity It was sold to the US.
The US president condemned the “use of electricity as a negotiation tip and threat,” and in another social media post Tuesday, Canada said, “The more we pay a large financial price for this, the more we will be read in history books for years to come!”
Ford said Trump has started this economic war with Canada.
“We’re not provoked,” Ford said. “If there is a recession, it is a self-made recession created by one person, and only one person.”
Ford announced Monday that his government is up 25% against electricity to 1.5 million American homes and businesses. Trump’s trade war.
Incoming call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Kearney On Tuesday, his government said it would maintain the first tranche of unrelated federal tariffs until Americans respect and commit free trade.
A senior official at Kearney’s camp said Kearney would not join Ford in Washington for talks. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. Because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the issue.
Carney, sworn in the coming days to replace Justin Trudeau, said Trump’s latest steel and aluminum tariff threat is an attack on Canadian workers, families and businesses.
“My government will maintain tariffs until Americans show respect for us and demonstrate a reliable and reliable commitment to free and fair trade,” Carney said.
Kearney mentions Canada’s first $30 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs worth Canada (US$21 billion). These are applied to items such as American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles, and certain pulp and paper products. They were applied last week.
Canadian officials are planning retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s specific steel and aluminum tariffs if Trump is moving forward with those tariffs.
“We can’t attack Canada, our number one customer, and we don’t expect a response,” Ford said. “We responded and they came back. I’m a businessman. I want to sit down and negotiate this and stop the bleeding.”
