Washington: US President Donald Trump Tuesday escalated the trade war with Canada by doubling the tariff on steel and aluminum imports from that country.
Trump announced the additional 25 per cent tariff on Canadian steel — taking it up to 50 per cent — in a long post on his social media platform Truth Social, in retaliation for Ontario, a province of Canada, announcing a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the American states of New York, Michigan and Minnesota to protest Trump’s tariff on imports from Canada.
The new tariff rates go into effect from Wednesday.
“Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25 per cent tariff on ‘electricity’ coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an additional 25 per cent tariff, to 50 per cent, on all steel and aluminium coming into the United States from Canada, one of the highest tariffing nations anywhere in the world,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This will go into effect tomorrow morning, March 12th”.
Trump said further: “Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250 per cent to 390 per cent on various US dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the US to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the US which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.”
Trump in February reinstated the 25 per cent tariff on all steel imports that he had imposed in his first term and elevated the duty on aluminum imports to 25 per cent from 10 per cent. He announced a second round tariff hikes targeting Canada, Mexico and China that went into effect on March 4 but are on hold, with the exception of the tariff on Chinese goods. A reciprocal tariff system is slated to go into effect from April 2 that will impose the same rates of duty on America’s imports as its exports are subjected to by its trading nation partners.
Trump also slammed Canada on its defence spending. “Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. Why??? This cannot continue.”
And he doubled down on his threats to turn Canada into the 51st state of the US. “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a great and powerful state within the greatest nation that the world has ever seen!”
