(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump plans to double the nation’s steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, increasing each to 50%, he announced Tuesday.
In a social media post, Trump said the levy’s leap is in retaliation to Ontario Premier Doug Ford imposing a 25% electricity tariff on exports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota, which took effect on Monday.
“This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th,” Trump said in the post.
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The president also said he would declare a “national emergency on electricity” within the “threatened area,” presumably the three affected states.
“This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada,” Trump said. He did not immediately make his plans clear.
Alongside the tariff announcement came further threats of an escalating trade war, with the president specifically targeting Canada’s tariffs on American dairy — which are above 200% but only kick in once the U.S. has completed its limit of tariff-free dairy sales.
Trump himself negotiated the tariff-free dairy sale limit back in 2018. In the same social media post, Trump said Canada “must immediately drop” what he described as an “anti-American farmer tariff,” threatening tariffs on cars if those on dairy and other similar tariffs are not dissolved.
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“If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada,” the post reads in part. “Those cars can easily be made in the USA!”
According to new Edmunds data, 48.6% of all new vehicles sold through February were built in the U.S. Another 17.4% were built in Mexico, 7.4% in Canada and 26.5% elsewhere.
Trump also once again reiterated his desire for Canada to be the nation’s “cherished” 51st state — a development he claims would make “all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”
