By ROB GILLIES
TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s most populous province might bar American-made alcohol along with limiting electrical energy exports to Michigan, New York State and Minnesota if President-elect Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on all Canadian merchandise, a senior official mentioned Thursday.
Ontario can also be contemplating limiting exports of vital minerals required for electrical automobile batteries and stopping U.S.-based corporations from the federal government’s procurement course of, the official mentioned, talking on situation on anonymity as they weren’t licensed to talk publicly concerning the potential measures.
Ford confirmed on Wednesday night that Ontario is considering limiting electrical energy exports to Michigan, New York State and Minnesota. He reiterated that on Thursday and mentioned it could make electrical energy unaffordable for Individuals.
“It’s a last resort,” Ford mentioned. “I don’t think President-elect Trump wants that to happen. We’re sending a message to the U.S. If you come and attack Ontario, you attack livelihoods of people in Ontario and Canadians, we are going to use every tool in our tool box to defend Ontarians and Canadians. Let’s hope it never comes to that.”
Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all merchandise coming into the US from Canada and Mexico until they stem the stream of migrants and medicines.
Ontario powered 1.5 million properties within the U.S. in 2023 and is a serious exporter of electrical energy to Michigan, Minnesota and New York.
“That’s okay if he that does that. That’s fine,” Trump advised CNBC when requested about Ford’s remarks on the ground of the New York Inventory Change.
“The United States is subsidizing Canada and we shouldn’t have to do that,” Trump added. “And we have a great relationship. I have so many friends in Canada but we shouldn’t have to subsidize a country. We’re subsidizing more than a $100 billion dollars a year. We shouldn’t have to be doing that.”
The CNBC reporter mentioned off digicam Trump advised him they hope they’ll work one thing out with Canada.
Canada provides extra oil to the U.S. than some other nation. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electrical energy imports as effectively.
“If you put a 25% tariff on oil from Alberta that increases every gallon of gasoline by one dollar,” mentioned Ford, who’s chairman of a council of premiers for Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories.
Canada offered $170 billion value of vitality merchandise final yr to the U.S. It additionally has 34 vital minerals and metals the Pentagon is raring for.
Ontario’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland mentioned after Wednesday’s assembly with the premiers that various provincial premiers voiced help for a strong response to the tariffs, together with vital minerals being exported to the U.S.
Freeland didn’t point out oil however mentioned “obviously other ideas were discussed as well” when requested if Canada is contemplating chopping off oil exports to America. A couple of third of Canada’s commerce to the U.S. is vitality.
Practically 3.6 billion Canadian {dollars} ($2.7 billion) value of products and companies cross the border every day. Canada is the highest export vacation spot for 36 U.S. states.
Canada has promised extra border safety spending to handle Trump’s border issues. Ford mentioned that may embrace extra border and cops, in addition to drones and sniffer canine.
Canadian Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who together with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago not too long ago, mentioned they plan to share particulars of these border plans with the incoming Trump administration within the coming days.
On the dinner, Kristen Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., mentioned America’s commerce deficit with Canada was additionally raised. Hillman mentioned the U.S. had a $75 billion commerce deficit with Canada final yr however famous a 3rd of what Canada sells into the U.S. is vitality exports and costs have been excessive.
Trudeau mentioned this week that U.S.-imposed tariffs could be “absolutely devastating” for the Canadian financial system, however it could additionally imply actual hardship for Individuals.
Economists say corporations would have little selection however to go alongside the added prices, dramatically elevating costs for items similar to meals, clothes, vehicles, alcohol and others.
The Produce Distributors Affiliation, a Washington-based commerce group, has mentioned tariffs will increase costs for contemporary fruit and greens and damage U.S. farmers when the nations retaliate. Canada imposed duties in 2018 in opposition to the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian metal and aluminum.
Canadian officers have mentioned it’s unfair to lump Canada in with Mexico. U.S. customs brokers seized 43 kilos of fentanyl on the Canadian border final fiscal yr, in contrast with 21,100 kilos on the Mexican border.
A lot of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — the place it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths yearly — is made by Mexican drug cartels utilizing precursor chemical substances smuggled from Asia.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with irregular migrants on the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024, in comparison with 23,721 encounters on the Canadian border throughout that point.
Initially Printed: December 12, 2024 at 1:34 PM EST
