Trump calls Canada a tariff ‘abuser,’ says it’s ‘not even allowed’ to tariff electricity
President Donald Trump shared his thoughts on Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on Monday, saying that the country was doing things that are “not even allowed,” like tariffing electricity.
Ontario announced last week that it would impose a 25% electricity surcharge on New York, Michigan, and Minnesota in response to Trump’s tariff on Canadian imports. However, that order was paused on Tuesday by Ford after he had what was deemed a "productive" conversation with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Before the pause, Trump shared his thoughts on Truth Social, claiming that Canada was being a tariff “abuser” and that on April 2, the United States would recoup the money it’s lost.
“Despite the fact that Canada is charging the USA from 250 percent to 390 percent Tariffs on many of our farm products, Ontario just announced a 25 percent surcharge on ‘electricity,’ of all things, and [you’re] not even allowed to do that,’ Trump wrote Monday night.
“Because our Tariffs are reciprocal, we’ll just get it all back on April 2. Canada is a Tariff abuser and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer,” he continued. “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. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
The Canadian electricity surcharges were expected to impact sales for nearly 1.5 million businesses and homes in the three states. The total impact would have been up to $400,000 per day.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke with NewsNation about his province’s decision to tariff electricity going into the U.S., saying he and Trump need to “sit down as quickly as possible” to end the trade war before it gets out of hand.
“We’re seeing inflation happening already, and it’s unnecessary. We don’t need to do this. We can have the two most prosperous countries in the world,” Ford said. “We need to sit down as quickly as possible.”
Trump has signed an agreement to delay his tariffs on Mexico and Canada once again, this time until April 2. However, once the deadline comes, Trump has said he will start levying reciprocal tariffs on countries that have placed any added tariffs on U.S. imports.
“On April 2, we’re going to move into the reciprocal tariff, and hopefully, Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we’ll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation,” Lutnick last week.
