WASHINGTON (AFP) – United States (US) President Donald Trump called Canada a “tariff abuser” and claimed the US did not need Canadian energy, after the province of Ontario imposed an electricity surcharge on three US states.
The leader of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said earlier on Monday that it was adding a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, Minnesota and New York – where it powers 1.5 million homes and businesses. “Ontario just announced a 25 per cent surcharge on ‘electricity,’ of all things,” Trump said, claiming the province was “not even allowed to do that.”
“Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the US is not going to be subsidising Canada any longer,” he added on his Truth Social platform.
“We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out.” Seeking to correct alleged trade imbalances, Trump has pledged to launch “reciprocal” tariffs on all countries beginning on April 2.
He seemed to confirm he would do so in the Truth Social post, writing: “Because our Tariffs are reciprocal, we’ll just get it all back on April 2.”
Trump has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office.
He allowed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports to take effect last Tuesday before announcing some exemptions on Thursday.
But around 62 per cent of Canadian imports were still hit by the new levies, even though much of them are on energy resources facing a lower tariff of 10 per cent.
Today, Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports are due to take effect – which will also affect Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that “until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent.”
