Someone’s blinking & Nobody Wins!
Toronto, Canada, Mar 11 (EFE).-
Ontario’s Conservative premier, Doug Ford, announced Tuesday he was temporarily suspending a decision to increase by 25% the price of the electricity the Canadian province sends to the United States, said US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick decided to resume talks.
Ford said he and Lutnick had a “productive conversation about the economic relationship between the US and Canada” early Tuesday.
On Monday, the Ontario premier said he had decided to increase the price on electricity exports in response to US President Donald Trump’s policies.
The measure would have allowed Ontario to collect an additional 300,000 to 400,000 Canadian dollars (207,000 to 277,000 dollars) a day. Ford said he could still raise the price if Trump increases tariffs against Canada.
After months of threats, Trump implemented tariffs of 25% on trade with Canada on Mar. 4, with some exception, but later postponed the decision until Apr. 2.
The Canadian government responded with levies of the same amount on about 30 billion dollars worth of US goods.
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, hub to most of its manufacturing sector, and home to all of its auto assembly plants, took retaliatory measures against US products, additional to those decided by the federal government.
Trump’s change of mind?
US President Donald Trump left the door open to suspending additional tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum after Ontario’s governor announced the suspension of levies on electricity shipped to the US.
“As you know there is a very strong man in Canada who said he was going to charge a surcharge or tariff on electricity coming into our country. He has called, and he has said he is not going to do that. It would have been a very bad thing if he did but he is not going to do that. So, I respect that,” Trump said at a White House event with Elon Musk.
Trump added that he would “probably” reconsider the new tariffs announced against Canada in retaliation to the announcement by the governor of the province of Ontario, the popular conservative Doug Ford. EFE
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