US President Donald Trump speaks to journalists aboard Aire Force One as he travels from West Palm Beach back to Washington on March 9, 2025. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt / AFP)
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had ordered a doubling of the tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum in response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s imposition of a new tax on electricity supplied to three US states.
Ford’s action was itself a response to Trump’s earlier tariff move.
"Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on "Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th,” the president posted on his social media site, Truth Social.
Trump also said without providing details that he would soon declare a "National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area,” an apparent reference to portions of Minnesota, Michigan and New York, which depend upon Ontario for some electricity supplies. He issued a separate series of demands for Canada to drop existing tariffs on imports from the United States of agricultural products and repeated his insistence that Canada "become our cherished Fifty First State.”
The move is the latest escalation in Trump’s trade dispute with Canada, and risks further upsetting markets which have posted steady losses since the president moved forward last week with an initial round of tariffs on Canada and Mexico. US stocks resumed their decline after Trump said he would double the tariffs; the S&P 500 Index was down 0.3% at 10:17 am In New York, while the Dow Jones Industrial average fell by 1%.
The threat is an escalation of Trump’s tariff fight with Canada and the latest shift in his plans. Early in his term, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all goods from the US’s northern neighbor, only to subsequently delay the move for one month. When the tariffs went into effect last week, the US president within days moved to exempt goods covered under USMCA, a North American free trade agreement he negotiated during his first term, after markets dropped and at the urging of US auto manufacturers.
The move precedes the next planned wave of tariffs, due in April, in which Trump plans to set a "reciprocal” rate that he considers equivalent to countries’ tariffs, non-tariff barriers and certain taxes, including Canada’s 5% general sales tax, which is applied to nearly all purchases domestically. Trump has regularly complained about Canada’s dairy tariffs, which are a part of the country’s protected system of production quotas, known as supply management.
Canada responded to the initial tariffs with a series of retaliatory measures, including a 25% surcharge on electricity sent to Minnesota, New York, and Michigan from Ontario. Canada’s federal government has also imposed tariffs on items like American orange juice, footwear and motorcycles.
