Doug Ford urges Canada's leader to ramp up tariffs on US
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is pressuring Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to ramp up tariffs against the United States after President Trump doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this week.
“I highly recommended to the prime minister directly that we slap another 25 percent on top of our tariffs to equal President Trump's tariffs on our steel,” Ford said during a Wednesday appearance on CNN’s “Situation Room.”
“He has to, he has to start looking around the world at China and other locations that are taking Chinese steel and really stop the flow of steel. That's the problem,” Ford told host Wolf Blitzer. “Canada is not the problem. Again, we purchased $30 billion, with a 'B,' of steel off the U.S., and that's going to come to an end real quick.”
Trump signed the executive order to hike the tariffs Tuesday. The measure went into effect Wednesday and would levy steel and aluminum tariffs on almost all imports to the U.S.. The United Kingdom is exempt as it inked a trade deal with Washington last month.
Canada has retaliated against the U.S. previously, slapping a 25 percent reciprocal tariff on U.S. aluminum and steel products. Carney, who met with Trump at the White House in early May, did not express readiness to implement Ford’s suggestion.
“We will take some time, not much, some time because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on the trading relationship,” Carney said to reporters Wednesday, according to Politico.
“Those discussions are progressing. I would note that the American action is a global action. It’s not one targeted in Canada, so we will take some time, but not more,” the prime minister said.
Ontario is open to imposing its own countermeasures, according to Ford. When asked on Wednesday if he's willing to bring back the electricity surcharge, he told reporters that "everything's on the table.”
Ontario implemented a 25 percent extra charge on the electricity Canada exports to three U.S. states after Trump threatened to double tariffs on steel and aluminum. Ford eventually spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and later suspended the tax impacting Michigan, New York and Minnesota.