Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he is “surprised” that Canada was not included in US President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff ban.
He said that everyone knows that the two countries are each other’s number one customers. Trump put the brakes on his so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ announced last week, but maintained the 10% baseline tax for all countries. While Canada was exempt from these taxes, tariffs on autos, steel, and aluminum, etc., remain at 25%. Canada has imposed its own retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of American goods and is ready to impose another $95 billion if the US trade war continues.
The truth is that tariffs on Canada are taxes on Americans and that is the last thing we want to see for the American people. Ford said that the Canadian government will reduce its retaliatory tariffs if the US ends the trade war. Previously, the Ontario government imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity sent to three US states, and then suspended it. He said the trade war is having a chilling effect on many industries on both sides of the border, but tourism is being hit particularly hard.
A tourism industry monitor reported in March that demand for Canada-U.S. flights had fallen, with cross-border bookings for this spring and summer down more than 70 per cent. Earlier this month, a New York tourism official said he was concerned about the decline in cross-border traffic and noted that the number of visitors from north of the border had fallen sharply in February since the trade war began. The premier said he thought Cox would speak positively about his visit to Toronto and hoped the Republican governor would encourage his counterpart to travel to Ontario, which is very important.
