Once again President Trump won a trade victory after Ontario's Premier, the equivalent of a governor in the U.S., backed off imposing a 25% tariff on electricity sold to the United States.
Doug Ford had imposed a tariff on his own, without consulting the Canadian federal government. Ontario provides electricity to 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, Minnesota, and New York.
After Ford imposed his tariff on Monday, Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on Tuesday, to take effect Wednesday, increasing to 50% on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States.
As a result, Ford agreed to remove the surcharge.
"I was absolutely shocked that the Ontario premier decided that he alone, for the whole nation of Canada in essence, was going to apply this 25% tariff on electricity from the province of
Ontario. He couldn't apply that to anything anybody else sends. So, it was just the Ontario electricity,” Brian Rushfeldt said.
But Ford failed to consider the big picture.
"I just cannot believe that Ford, supposedly as a conservative, was so foolish to think that he could apply that for the province of Ontario and not impact the rest of Canada and all of the United States. I think somebody with some common sense said to him, ‘hey, this was a stupid move, back off and stop it’ because he did back off. Of course, then Trump said, ‘OK, well, if you're backing off, I'm backing off,’” Rushfeldt said.
