Editor’s note: According to multiple reports late Tuesday afternoon, President Trump does not intend to follow through with threats to impose higher tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. The news comes after officials in Canada’s largest province, Ontario, paused plans to levy tariffs on electricity exports to the U.S. This story is developing and will be updated as warranted.
President Trump announced plans to raise tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to 50%. That would be double the current tariff rate.
In a Tuesday morning social media post, Trump said the higher tariffs will go into effect on March 12. Trump also demanded Canada drop its “anti-farmer” tariff of 250% to 350% on various U.S. dairy products.
According to a March 7 statement from International Dairy Foods Association President Becky Rasdall Vargas, the 250% tariffs would apply if U.S dairy exports exceed a certain quota. However, the U.S. has never come close to that number. Vargas says that’s because Canada has erected protectionist measures that “fly in the face" of U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement trade obligations.
In 2023, a USMCA dispute resolution panel ruled Canada’s rules do not unfairly limit U.S. dairy producers. American officials strongly disagreed with that determination.
Why tariffs now?
Trump’s Tuesday decision came in response to a decision by Ontario’s provincial government to impose 25% tariffs on electricity coming into the United States. Ontario exports electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan.
During a Tuesday afternoon conversation with reporters in Toronto, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his province would temporarily suspend its electricity tariffs. No word yet if this will prompt Trump to rescind his latest tariff proposal.
In his earlier Truth Social post, Trump said he would declare a “National Emergency on Electricity” for those impacted states. He also threatened to impose higher tariffs on Canadian auto imports if “other egregious, long-time tariffs” are not dropped. Trump contends his auto tariffs would “essentially, permanently, shut down that nation’s auto industry.”
He went on to claim the U.S. subsidizes Canada by more than $200 billion a year, while Canada pays very little for national security. According to Trump, the only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state. This, he says, would make all tariffs and “everything else” disappear.
“Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that,” Trump says. “The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World.”