Trump says Canada will pay ‘financial price’ as he doubles tariffs on steel, aluminum
By Canadian Press on March 11, 2025.
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Canada will pay a “financial price” after vowing Tuesday to double the tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum imports in response to Ontario’s surcharge on electricity exports to the United States.
“They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!” Trump posted on social media.
Trump said 50 per cent tariffs will be placed on Canadian steel and aluminum on Wednesday. The president also called on Canada to immediately drop duties on dairy and other “long time tariffs” and threatened to “essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” with tariffs in April.
“The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump said.
The president said that annexation would end the tariffs and what he called the “Northern Border” problem, adding “the artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear.”
On Monday, Ontario placed a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports, hitting about 1.5 million homes in three U.S. states.
“We will not back down. We will be relentless,” Premier Doug Ford said during an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday. “I apologize to the American people that President Trump decided to have an unprovoked attack on our country.”
Markets have been in turmoil since Trump launched — and partly paused — a trade war with Canada and Mexico last week.
Trump signed an executive order last Thursday delaying until April tariffs on goods that meet the rules-of-origin requirements under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade, also called CUSMA.
The White House has said the steel and aluminum tariffs will stack on top of any other duties that Trump introduces in April, meaning those tariffs could increase to 75 per cent.
Canadian officials have said Trump’s ultimate goal is to weaken the Canadian economy in order to annex the country.
“I’m not too sure why he continues to attack his closest friends and allies, but we need the American people to speak up,” Ford said.
The premier’s office said Ford would be speaking U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later Tuesday.
The president’s initial tariffs were linked to the flow of deadly fentanyl across the border — but U.S. government data shows the volume of drugs crossing the northern border is minuscule compared with the amounts crossing the border with Mexico.
Trump also has complained about Canadian defence spending and trade, and has often misrepresented Canada’s dairy market policy.
Canada uses “tariff rate quotas” which place a limit on the quantity of a product that can be imported at a lower tariff rate. Under CUSMA, most importers don’t pay those high tariffs on Canadian dairy.
Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman told NewsNation Monday that 99 per cent of products traded between the two nations are tariff-free.
Trump’s duties on steel and aluminum recall similar actions taken under his first administration.
During negotiations on CUSMA, Trump used his national security powers to impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel imports and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminum imports in March 2018. It affected all countries that sell into the U.S.
The day after announcing those levies, Trump posted on social media that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” Canada and other countries introduced their own duties on the U.S. in response.
Nearly a year later, the White House announced a deal had been reached with Canada and Mexico, ending the trade dispute.
Economists have said Trump’s initial tariffs on steel and aluminum were costly. A report by the Washington-based Tax Foundation said companies were forced to pay higher prices, U.S. exports dropped and the duties resulted in the loss of about 75,000 manufacturing jobs.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics found that each job saved in steel-producing industries came at a high cost to consumers — roughly $650,000 per job.
About a quarter of all steel used in the United States is imported and Canada is the largest supplier, accounting for nearly 25 per cent of all U.S. steel imports in 2023. Canada is also the United States’ largest source of aluminum.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2025.
Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press
29-28
Trump will not back down! He will not lose and will take down the US, if need be, just to be right!
Diplomacy is the best way, but Doug Ford believes getting into a fight we will never win is the answer! He wants Alberta to follow suit, putting our one industry that is 80% of our exports and brings in $140 billion to our GDP annually, under threat by using it as a weapon as well, while Trump says he will shutdown the Ontario automobile industry and double some of the 25% tariffs because of Ford’s electricity tariffs!
Fools in peeing contest! Did he demand Quebec cut off all the electricity to the US as well, since Quebec could knock out a major part of the US northeastern states? NO!! Once again Ontario and Quebec want to USE Alberta for their own gains! Same old, same old!
What the Hell, eh! We can die slowly by a thousand cuts or one quick one?
Lets cut off all oil and gas exports to the US, all automobile parts, all electricity, all precious metals, all beef, all grains and watch both countries burn!
Sit back and get drunk while we watch Canada and the US destroy themselves!
We will never become the 51st state and we will never win a trade war with the US . . . Ontario has always thought that it runs the country, along with its Quebec sidekick, with Chretien and other influential Quebecois who have always tried to control Canada, believing that the rest of Canada is supposed to serve Quebec and now Ontario is picking a fight it will never win so it is trying to suck Alberta into it, but we have much more to lose than any other province . . . the US can find alternative suppliers of oil and gas and it wouldn’t be that hard for them. All they would have to do is come up with a few new agreements with Central and South American countries who have already supplied heavy oil to the US and the refineries would not have to be refitted . . . but Ford is only focused on Ontario and doesn’t care about the Alberta economy!
One part of winning wars is knowing your enemy and Ford has no clue of Trump or how far he is willing to go! He is a wildcard! He will do anything just to win!