MNI BRIEF: Ontario Pausing US Electric Tariffs Pending Talks
MNI (OTTAWA) - Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday he's only suspending a 25% tariff on electricity sent to the U.S. after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed to talks on renewed free trade, warning escalation by President Donald Trump is damaging economies and stock markets.
“Lutnick has sent out an olive branch to us to come down” Thursday, Ford told reporters Tuesday in Toronto. “I’ve agreed to suspend temporarily, we always have that tool in our tool kit,” noting the power shipped services the equivalent of 1.5 million homes in New York, Michigan and Minnesota. The premier of Canada's largest province also said other regional leaders will retaliate dollar-for-dollar if Trump proceeds with tariffs on steel and aluminum.
"It’s absolute chaos out there right now, we need to move forward jointly,” Ford said. Continued fighting is a bad idea he said because “assembly lines will shut down in the U.S. and Canada, the stock market is tumbling, over four trillion dollars, consumer confidence just went down." (See: MNI INTERVIEW: Trump Canada Threats Amount To A 10% Tariff)