The Canada US Trade War: Why Tariffs Are a Dumb Move for Everyone
Opinion
By Robert Loblaw
It’s March 11, 2025, and the Canada-US trade war is a mess that just took a wild turn. Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to 1.5 million US homes on March 10, pushing the US to double Canadian steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%—until Ford suspended it today after talks, and Trump hinted he’d “probably” ease off. Canada’s still got 25% tariffs on up to CA$155 billion (US$106 billion) in US goods, and CA$10 billion in Canadian sales are already toast, with autos and agriculture next up. But here’s the problem: retaliatory tariffs don’t work. They just punish Canadian businesses and consumers while the US President taxes his own people. Instead of playing this losing game, Canada should take a different approach—dropping its own trade barriers, skipping the import tariffs, and letting the US dig its own economic hole.
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