Ontario premier freezes plan to slap surcharge of electricity exports to US
by David Ljunggren, Reuters · KSL.comEstimated read time: 1-2 minutes
ONTARIO — The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario said he was suspending plans to impose a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the United States and would fly to Washington this week for talks with the Trump administration.
Doug Ford made his surprise announcement on Tuesday just hours after telling U.S. networks that he was ready to cut off all electricity exports unless President Donald Trump dropped his threat to impose tariffs on Canadian imports.
"Both parties are heated and the temperature needs to come down," Ford told reporters, adding that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had reached out to him.
"When you're negotiating with someone (and) they call you and they hand over an olive branch, the worst thing I think I could do as premier of Ontario is ignore them," he said.
Ford said he would fly to Washington on Thursday with federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc for talks with Lutnick and other administration officials.
Ford said the two sides would discuss a renewed trilateral trade deal with the United States and Mexico. Ottawa had earlier indicated it was cool to the idea of reviewing the deal as long as U.S. tariffs lasted.
Trump, citing Ford's threat, had earlier said he would double his planned tariff on all steel and aluminum products coming into the United States from Canada, bringing the total to 50%.
"Let's sit down and negotiate," Ford said, adding that talks were in the interest of both parties.
Ontario exports power to 1.5 million homes in New York state, Minnesota and Michigan.