President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ordered his administration to raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports by an additional 25%, bringing the total duties to 50%.
The new policy will go into effect Wednesday morning, Trump said in a Truth Social post that also repeated his calls for Canada to be absorbed into the U.S. as the “Fifty First State.”
Ford’s threat to add a surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota came in retaliation for the sweeping 25% tariffs that Trump had placed on imports from Canada.
The premier earlier in the day had vowed to keep his countermeasures on the U.S. in place, warning, “There’s one person to be blamed if we go into a recession, it will be called the Trump recession.”
But he and Lutnick had a “productive conversation” later in the day, and they agreed to meet in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to discuss a “renewed” trilateral trade agreement, according to a joint statement from the two men.
The moves marked the latest twists in an escalating and increasingly unpredictable trade war between the U.S. and Canada.
On Tuesday morning, Trump threw gas on the smoldering conflict with a Truth Social post announcing the new tariffs, while also repeating his calls for Canada to be absorbed into the U.S. as the “Fifty First State.”
Trump said he was imposing the latest tariffs in response to Ontario’s decision to slap a 25% tax on electricity exports to the U.S.
That move by Ford was itself issued in retaliation for the sweeping 25% tariffs that Trump had placed on imports from Canada.
