Ontario Suspends 25% Electricity Surcharge After Trump Threatens Double Tariffs

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday that Canada’s most populous province was suspending its 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the US, hours after President Trump announced additional 25% duties on Canadian aluminum and steel.

In a statement on X, Ford said he had a “productive conversation” with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the two would meet in Washington Thursday alongside US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Ford said he would discuss a “renewed USMCA” with Lutnick and Greer, referring to the North American trade agreement signed during Trump’s first term.

“In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota,” Ford and Lutnick added in their joint statement.

The topsy-turvy tariff day did little to settle nerves on Wall Street, which suffered a second straight losing day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 478 points after slumping nearly 700 points earlier in the day. The Nasdaq fell more than 32 points while the S&P 500 dropped more that 42 points.

Trump had written a scathing response to Ford’s electricity surcharge earlier Tuesday morning, saying the US would bring its tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50% in response.

The 50% tariff was set to go into effect on Wednesday morning — but Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC Tuesday afternoon there would be no additional 25% increase after Ford called off the electricity surcharge.

“President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Tuesday evening.

“Pursuant to his previous executive orders, a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum with no exceptions or exemptions will go into effect for Canada and all of our other trading partners at midnight, March 12th.”

Trump also warned Canada to drop their high tariffs on US dairy products and said he would increase levies on Canada’s auto industry on April 2, promising to decimate its exports.

The president hailed Ford for backing down from his 25% electricity surcharge, telling reporters on the South Lawn, “He has called, and he said he’s not going to do that … it would’ve been a very bad thing if he did, and he’s not going to do that, so I respect that.”

The ongoing trade war has been brewing with Canada since Trump took office and threatened the northern neighbor with blanket 25% tariffs if they didn’t secure the northern border from drug smuggling and illegal immigration, and didn’t lower their tariffs on the US.

In February, Trump delayed the initial imposition of tariffs by one month after Canada agreed to send troops to the border and work to rein in drug smugglers — but the relationship quickly devolved and the 25% across-the-board tariffs took effect March 4.

Over the following days, Trump imposed one-month carveouts for car imports from Canada and Mexico, then extended it to goods covered by the 2020 USMCA.

The president has since said he would issue reciprocal tariffs on dairy and lumber if Canada doesn’t drop their rates — and has scheduled April 2 as a future date for auto tariffs to kick back in, as well as reciprocal tariffs on US imports from around the world, including countries like the European Union and Japan.