Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to respond to recent U.S. tariff hikes with retaliatory measures.
This request follows President Donald Trump’s decision to double tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier in the week. Ford has urged Ottawa to increase its own tariffs on goods coming from the United States in response.
“I highly recommended to the prime minister directly that we slap another 25 per cent on top of our tariffs to equal President Trump’s tariffs on our steel,” Ford said Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Situation Room.
Trump signed an executive order Tuesday imposing higher tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, effective Wednesday.
The United Kingdom is exempt after signing a trade deal with Washington last month.
“He has to, he has to start looking around the world at China and other locations that are taking Chinese steel and really stop the flow of steel.
That’s the problem,” Ford told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. “Canada is not the problem. Again, we purchased $30 billion, with a ‘B,’ of steel off the U.S., and that’s going to come to an end real quick.”
Ford wrote on X that, “President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are a $15 billion tax on Americans and will cost tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S. I have a better idea. Drop the tariffs and let’s build Fortress Am-Can to create 250,000 more steel jobs on both sides of the border in the next two years.”
Carney, who met with Trump at the White House earlier this month, stopped short of committing to Ford’s demand for an additional hike.
“We will take some time, not much, some time because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on the trading relationship,” Carney told reporters Wednesday, according to Politico.
“Those discussions are progressing. I would note that the American action is a global action. It’s not one targeted in Canada, so we will take some time, but not more,” he said.
The measure was suspended following discussions between Ford and the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.