US President Donald Trump called Canada a “tariff abuser” on Monday and asserted the US did not need Canadian energy, after the province of Ontario implemented an electricity surcharge on three US states. Ontario’s premier, the most populated province in Canada, declared earlier Monday that it was adding a 25 percent surcharge on its sales of electricity to Michigan, Minnesota and New York — where it supplies 1.5 million residences and businesses.
“Ontario just added a 25% surcharge on ‘electricity,’ believe it or not,” Trump tweeted, claiming the province wasn’t “even allowed to do that.” “Canada’s a Tariff abuser and always has been, but we’re not subsidizing Canada anymore,” he also posted on his Truth Social site. “We don’t want your Cars, we don’t want your Lumber, we don’t want your Energy, and soon enough you will all find out.”
In his bid to balance perceived trade deficits, Trump has threatened to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on all countries from 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 made 25 percent tariffs apply to imports from Canada and Mexico on last Tuesday before granting Thursday exemptions. Approximately 62 percent of Canadian imports, however, remained under the new tax despite the majority being energy resources which are in a lower tariff of 10 percent.
According to vanguardngr, it is on Wednesday that Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel imported from overseas are to become effective — which also will include Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared on Monday that “until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent.”
“Suppressing some tariffs, providing eleventh-hour exemptions — that is not good enough. Once and for all, we have to bring an end to the mayhem. We must sit down, bargain in good faith and get a decent deal,” he declared during a news conference.
“Until that day, Ontario will struggle… That’s why we’re taking action today with a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports” to Minnesota, Michigan and New York, he said.
The surcharge would add an extra $100 or so to the bills of residents in the three states, Ford said.
“I want to make this very clear: I will not hesitate to impose this tariff. If necessary, if the United States continues to provoke, I will not hesitate to cut the electricity off flat out,” he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate and fellow Democrat who lost the election in November to Trump — took to X and posted that “Minnesotans who can’t afford to pay their record-shattering electric bill” were the “first casualties of Trump’s trade war.”
“Minnesota won’t pay for Trump’s economy run by billionaires. It has to stop,” Walz wrote.
