He registered a new skirmish on Tuesday with Donald Trump’s promise, US president, to punish with a 50% tax at the importation of Canadian aluminum and steel, which means bending his previous threat. Trump had announced in February 25% of taxes to all exporting countries of these two products, whose entry into force is scheduled for Wednesday.
The decision to tighten Canada more than the rest, he said in a message on his social network, took it in the morning in response to Monday’s announcement that the Canadian province of Ontario will rise 25% the price of electricity that exports to three states of the southern neighbor (Míchigan, New York and Minnesota), and despite the fact that the markets collapsed, also on Monday, before the fear of a recession in the United States The aggressive and volatile commercial policy of the White House.
Hours after the president’s message, Ontario announced that, after negotiating with US officials, he withdrew the increase in the electricity bill with which he was pursuing to respond to Trump’s threats, who commented in a meeting with journalists in the White House that would probably be back in the threat thrown in the morning. “I’ll tell you if 50% rates enter,” he said.
The announcement with which hostilities began, as is customary, in Truth Social, in which he remained strangely silent for almost all of the Monday, the day in which, however, he bounced more than a hundred foreign messages that praised their policies while the bad economic news happened. The US president took off with a post Long, with its characteristic and emphatic use of capital letters, in which it refers and accuses Canada of being one of the nations with the highest tariffs in the world.
“This [la nueva imposición al aluminio y el acero] It will enter into force tomorrow morning, March 12. In addition, Canada must immediately eliminate its anti -state rate for farmers from 250% to 390% on several dairy products, ”added the Republican president, referring to an essential sector in the support of the west medium. This region prepares to be one of the most affected by this war with the old commercial partner, which leads exports to the United States both steel (worth 11.2 billion dollars in 2024) and aluminum (9.5 billion).
“A national emergency on electricity within the threatened area” by the expensive supply from Ontario. He also threatened to increase on April 2, the day in which the United States has announced that a storm of “reciprocal” tariffs with countries around the world will unleashed, with a “substantial increase” of taxes to cars entering the United States. “In essence [esa medida] It will permanently close the car manufacturing business in Canada, ”Trump wrote, overlooking the serious consequences that something like this could lead to the US automobile sector, organized around the border city of Detroit and intimately integrated with the North Industries.
Putting the idea of the annexation of Canada on top of the table. “They pay very little for national security, and depend on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada for a sum of more than 200,000 million dollars [de desequilibrio de la balanza comercial, 183.000 millones de euros] a year. BECAUSE? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is that Canada becomes our beloved fifty -first state. ”
And again, the handling of Trump’s numbers was slippery. Actually, the commercial imbalance between the two is far from the record of 78,192 million of 2022. In 2024, Canada exported goods to the United States for an amount of 412,696 million dollars, while they crossed the border in the opposite direction of merchandise for 349,360 million dollars. Therefore, the commercial deficit stood at 63,336 million, 1.5% less than the previous year, according to the data of the Office of Economic Analysis, under the Commerce Department.
Consequences on bags
The news of Trump Frustó’s new punishment, which recorded on Monday the worst day of 2025 with a 2.7% drop in the S&P 500 index, the most representative in the United States. Although in the first bars of the session, it marked profits, reprisals on Canada turned the market. Even Trump’s reverse failed failed to alter the mood of investors. The Nasdaq, very overturned in technology, tried during the morning to escape the red numbers but closed the day with a slight loss of 0.18%. The most traditional Dow Jones, meanwhile, left 1.1% and S&P 500, 0.76%.
The wave of pessimism (after a strong fall, the market usually recovers breath, even temporarily) obeys the worsening of the US economy, patent in the data and in the downward forecasts of the analysts. Also to Trump hesitations on Sunday, when, twice – in an interview in Fox News and the question of a reporter aboard the presidential plane – this was not able to rule out the possibility that the country was being peeked out a recession.
The parquet also weighs the conviction that, contrary to what the analysts thought, the new White House tenant will not correct its course if their policies subtract growth, add inflation or cause descents in the markets. This expectation was blurred on the weekend in which Trump admitted – he, little given to euphemisms – a “transition period” in the economy. The new tariffs on Canada confirm investors that markets will not deter Trump from the commercial war, at least for the moment.
Its authorities calculated, before bassing on Tuesday, that the new electricity prices from Ontario, a change advanced last week by its prime minister, Doug Ford, newly chosen, would result in profits per value 400,000 Canadian dollars per day (250,000 euros), which would be used in “supporting workers, families and companies of Ontario”, according to a statement in the province. Ford, whose political profile has fattened with the fight with the United States, maintained its plans even though the imposition of cars and many other products imported from Canada (and Mexico).
Amid the commercial war resurgence, the Canadian liberal party chose the successor of its leader, Justin Trudeau. That the Bank of Canada and England directed, it will be the next prime minister of the North American country, in addition to the person in charge of calling elections this year. Carney assumed the position with the promise to stand up to Trump and with the conviction that Canada is ready to win the war. When assuming his new responsibility, Carney declared that his government will maintain tariffs on US imports until Washington shows “respect.” “The Americans would do well in not being wrong,” he finished, “in commerce, as in hockey, Canadians always win.”
This climate of confrontation is contributing to the weakening of the economic perspectives and to break the initial idyll of the markets with Trump, whose choice caused strong increases of Wall Street and the dollar to the expectation of growth and low taxes. The United States Stock Exchange and the dollar are below the levels prior to the elections, after falling Wall Street around 10% from maximum levels.
The European stock markets, which in November seemed condemned to ostracism for the combination of geopolitical and commercial risks, are, on the contrary, the market star in 2025. Only this week Citi and HSBC have stopped betting on the United States Stock Exchange. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have cut economic forecasts and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers sees a possibility between two of a recession entry.
