Donald Trump has said he will double steel and aluminium tariffs against Canada to 50% and threatened to impose levies on its car industry as the US President escalated his trade war. The Telegraph has more.
In the latest souring of relations between the North American neighbours, Mr Trump announced he would impose 50% tariffs on all steel and aluminium coming into the US from Canada.
He said the new levy would come into force from tomorrow and was in retaliation for Ontario’s decision to place a 25% tariff on electricity coming into the US.
The global sell-off in stock markets resumed after Mr Trump’s announcement, with the FTSE 100 in London and the Cac 40 in Paris dropping 1.3% and the Dax in Frankfurt plunging 1.3%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 1.4% and the S&P 500 dropped as much as 1.2%.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he wrote: “Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various US dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous.
“I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area.
“This will allow the US to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada.
“If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the tariffs on cars coming into the US which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.”
Worth reading in full.
In the Spectator, Matthew Lynn says Trump is happy to see the stock markets fall in reaction to his aggressive tariff policy:
Trump knows that Wall Street was massively over-valued on taking office. He knows as well that ending President Biden’s wild, deficit-funded spending, as well as significant redundancies as Government waste is cut, will mean an inevitable slow-down in the economy. With that in mind, he is quite happy to see a correction take the froth out of the market, especially as it will help prevent a far worse crash in a year or two. In reality, he wants stocks to fall. It is a high-risk strategy, and of course it could easily get out of control. But if there is a limited 10% fall over the course of the spring it could just work.
Stop Press: Ontario has suspended its new tax on electricity exports after Trump’s escalation. Doug Ford, the province’s Premier, wrote on X that he had “a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada” with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He said that Ontario had “agreed to suspend its 25% surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota”.
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