Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday that he would be suspending a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S. he had initially rolled out just a day prior, following “productive” conversations with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
In a joint statement, Lutnick and Ford disclosed they had a “productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada” Tuesday and that the two agreed to meet on Thursday in Washington to further discuss “a renewed USMCA”—referencing a trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico negotiated during Trump’s first term. U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer is also slated to attend the meeting Thursday.
The furious back-and-forth comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff deadline on April 2.
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In light of the conversation, the government of Ontario and Ford agreed to suspend the 25% surcharge the premier previously announced on Monday, which would have affected the states of New York, Minnesota, and Michigan.
Trump initially retaliated against Ford’s surcharge Tuesday morning by announcing an additional 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from Canada—adding up to a total of 50% with a previously announced tariff set to go into effect this week.
The president later rescinded the additional tariff following Ford and Lutnick’s conversation.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro clarified to CNBC that while Trump won’t be imposing the additional 25% tariff, the originally planned 25% tariff on steel and aluminum “will go into effect for Canada and all of our other trading partners at midnight” Wednesday.
The president intends to impose a 25% tariff on a host of other goods imported from Canada starting April 2, despite a free-falling stock market which saw the Nasdaq post its worst day since 2022 on Monday, with a 4 percent drop.
