President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would double Canada’s steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%, expanding the trade war that helped the stock market decline recently.

Later Tuesday, Trump retracted the threat after negotiations between Commerce Secretary Howard Luttonick and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, with Ford dropping additional charges for electricity from states sold to three US provinces.

in Tuesday morning post To his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump told Lutnick to enforce additional tariffs on Wednesday. Movement was a response to Ontario charges 25% extra for electricity It was sold to Minnesota, Michigan and New York, Trump said.

“Why do our country allow other countries to supply electricity, even in small regions?” Trump wrote Follow-up post. “Who made these decisions and why? And you can imagine Canada being covered low enough to use electricity.

Trump also called on Canada to reduce tariffs on US dairy products. He threatened to impose additional tariffs on imported cars on April 2 if Canada did not drop those and other long-standing duties.

“If other terrible, long-term tariffs do not fall similarly by Canada, the tariffs on cars coming to the US on April 2 will increase dramatically, essentially shutting down Canadian car manufacturing forever,” he writes. “These cars are easy to make in America!”

Electricity extra charge

Ford announced its electricity surcharge on Monday. he I said The move comes in response to Trump’s imposition of last week’s 25% tariffs on Canadian metals, which later halted the US president.

The electricity surcharge costs electricity consumers in three states up to $400,000 a day, Ford said.

Ford criticised Trump’s aggressive stance on tariffs, saying that the last-minute halt was made little to repair the damage caused by the threat of the US president.

“It hurts families on both sides of the border,” Ford said. “It needs to be over, and that’s why I’m transparent. Ontario will not be tolerant until these tariffs are off the table and the threat of tariffs is permanently gone.”

He said the province “we will apply maximum pressure to maximize our leverage” and threatened to cut off Ontario’s power supply if the trade war continued.

According to White House press, Ford was forgiving.

“After President Trump threatened to use his enforcement to retaliate with 50% tariffs on Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke with Secretary Rutnick that he supports implementing a 25% claim on electricity exports to the United States,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.

Traders respond

The US stock market continued to collapse on Tuesday morning, recording its worst trading day Monday amid concerns about the economic impact of Trump’s tariff threat.

In his Tuesday morning post, Trump also called for Canada to join the US as the 51st state, saying it would resolve issues caused by US tariffs and provide military security and tax cuts to 40 million countries. He noted that the US would subsidize Canadian military.

“The only thing that makes sense is that Canada will become our precious 50 first states,” Trump wrote. “This will make all the tariffs and everything else will disappear completely. Canadians’ taxes will be cut very dramatically. They will be safer, militarily, otherwise the north border issue will be gone more than ever, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the world will be bigger and stronger than ever, Canada will be a big part of it.”

Last updated at 7:26pm, March 11, 2025