U.S. President Donald Trump is lashing out at Canada and using some of the strongest language he’s ever deployed against the one-time ally and trading partner, vowing to ruin the country economically after Ontario levied a surcharge on U.S.-bound electricity to hit back at his initial tranche of tariffs.
In a series of social media posts Tuesday morning, the day after Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s electricity levy took effect, Trump said he will make Canada pay “a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come.”
Trump upped the ante on his annexation taunts saying the only way for Canada to avoid his attempts to torpedo the economy is for the country to “become our cherished Fifty-First State.”
“This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear,” he claimed.
Trump said he has already instructed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to put an additional 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. from Canada, bringing the total tariff on those products to 50 per cent starting Wednesday.
He falsely claimed Canada is “ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.” Until Trump launched his trade war, most Canada-U.S. trade was entirely tariff-free under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement the president himself negotiated and signed in his first term.
CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp breaks down how Doug Ford’s plan to impose a levy on electricity could affect the U.S.
Trump’s tariff rampage sent the U.S. stock market into a tailspin yet again.
The S&P 500, which tracks the 500 largest publicly traded American companies, is down eight per cent in the last month alone. The technology-heavy Nasdaq is off 10 per cent.
Trump’s erratic approach to trade and the economy has sent stock traders into a panic, prompting a rush to sell equities given there is so much uncertainty with Canada, the U.S.’s largest customer.
Trump’s refusal to rule out a possible recession has only made things worse.
“I hate to predict things like that,” Trump told Fox News over the weekend.
Trump also threatened to substantially raise tariffs on cars coming into the U.S. from Canada on April 2 to try and shut down that key industry on this side of the border.
Just last week, Trump paused 25 per cent tariffs on some Canadian goods for another month after getting pushback from American business leaders who say the trade war is bad for financial markets.
But his decision to press ahead with targeted tariffs on steel and aluminum poses a major concern for Canada, given the last time Trump imposed similar tariffs on those metals, there was a huge drop in Canadian exports, threatening jobs and businesses.
According to Statistics Canada data, aluminum exports dropped by roughly half in 2019 as a result of Trump’s trade action in his first term.
