Canada backs down on 25% charge for electricity exports hours after Trump threatens new tariff for steel
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would suspend the Canadian province’s 25% electricity surcharge on the United States on Tuesday afternoon – just hours after President Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum.
Ford, the conservative leader of Ontario, said on X he chose not to impose the surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota after having a “productive conversation” about the economic relationship between Canada and the U.S. with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick agreed to meet with Ford and the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington D.C. on Thursday to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free trade agreement between the North American countries.
In response to the agreement, Ford agreed to suspend the increased tax on electricity.
The decision came hours after the president threatened to double the 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum , declare a national emergency for areas affected by the electricity surcharg and increase tariffs on Canadian-made cars to “essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada – all while heightening his desire to make Canada the 51st state.
Trump’s assertion was in response to Ford’s threat to add a surcharge to Ontario’s electricity exports to northern parts of the U.S., which share an energy grid with Canada.
Had the surcharge gone into effect, it could have increased electrical bills by $100 per month, Ford said.
“They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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