The premier said his plan will stay the same even though U.S. President Donald Trump implemented a pause on tariffs for products covered by USMCA.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he will start imposing a 25 percent surcharge on electricity being exported to the United States starting next week. The premier said his plan will stay the same even though U.S. President Donald Trump implemented a pause on tariffs for products covered by the USMCA free-trade agreement.
“We’re going to put a 25 percent tariff on electricity coming from Ontario to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota,” Ford said in an interview with Fox News on March 6.
He added in a post on social media, “A pause on some tariffs means nothing. Until President Trump removes the threat of tariffs for good, we will be relentless.”
Earlier in the week, Ford said he had sent letters to the governors of New York state, Minnesota, and Michigan advising them of the move but had not indicated when the charge would begin.
On March 6, he said the surcharge would begin on March 10.
“As of this Monday, we’re putting a 25 percent tariff on the electricity to the 1.5 million homes and businesses in those three states,“ Ford said in an interview with CNN. ”And honestly, it really bothers me we have to do this. I don’t want to do this.”
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Trump, who had previously put a 30-day pause on 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports and 10 percent on Canadian energy products, lifted the pause on March 4. Then on March 5, he put another one-month pause for the auto sector, and on March 6, delayed the tariffs for another month for products covered by the USMCA.
Ford told reporters on March 4 that he was prepared go one step further and halt the transmission of electricity from his province to the United States.
The United States is a net importer of Canadian power, buying 2,700 gigawatt hours last year, or about 50 percent more than it sold to Canada, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Ford’s decision to put export tariffs on energy is in contrast to the position of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who say while they support Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, they don’t want to put surcharge on their own energy exports.
“Alberta will simply not agree to export tariffs on our energy or other products, nor do we support a ban on exports of these same products,” Smith said in an earlier statement.
The federal government has said that its response to U.S. tariffs may include “non-tariff measures” as well, and has not ruled out export tariffs on energy as a possible option.
After Trump’s latest pause on March 6, federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada will delay implementing retaliatory tariffs on $125 billion worth of U.S. products, but will keep its tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. exports to Canada.
Trump has said his first wave of tariffs are meant to get Canada and Mexico to take action to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants through their borders into the United States.
He has also ordered tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports starting on March 12.
Separately, he has ordered his officials to review existing trade agreements, and to propose tariffs by April 2 in response to any practices deemed unfair to the United States.
