Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Premier Doug Ford has agreed to suspend Ontario’s 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports following a discussion with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
The news came in a joint statement posted to social media on Tuesday. According to the statement, Lutnick agreed to meet with Ford in Washington Thursday “alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline.”
“In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota,” the statement said.
Hours earlier U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to double steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada in response to Ontario’s new electricity export surcharge, warning he will soon “declare a national emergency on electricity.”
The comments were posted on the platform Truth Social one day after Ford announced the 25 per cent levy, valued at $10 per megawatt-hour, on electricity sent to the three states. The Premier’s Office said it will cost Americans about $300,000 to $400,000 per day.
The president said that based on the electricity surcharge, he has instructed his secretary of commerce to add an “additional 25 per cent tariff to 50 per cent on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States from Canada.”
The joint statement did not refer to Trump’s threat to further escalate the steel and aluminum tariffs, but Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park that he’s “pretty confident” they won’t be implemented.
Stacked U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum were already scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Trump also said he would be declaring a national emergency “within the threatened area,” which would “allow the U.S. to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada.”
“If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.” the president wrote in a subsequent post before launching into another rant about how Canada should be the 51st U.S. state.
“The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, "O Canada," will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
Ford has been calling on the U.S. to restart negotiations on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), or United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as it's known in the U.S., as a way through the trade war.
This is a developing news story. More to come.
A previous version of this story referred to the surcharge as a subsidy. We regret the mistype.