Ontario premier freezes plan to slap surcharge of electricity exports to US

OTTAWA – The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario said he was suspending plans to

impose a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports

to the US and would fly to Washington this week for talks with the Trump administration.

Mr Doug Ford made his surprise announcement on March 11, just hours after telling US networks that he was ready to cut off all electricity exports unless US President Donald Trump dropped his threat to impose tariffs on Canadian imports.

“Both parties are heated, and the temperature needs to come down,” Mr Ford told reporters, adding that US 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 (to) ignore them,” he said.

Mr Ford said he would fly to Washington on March 13 with federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc for talks with Mr Lutnick and other administration officials.

Mr Ford said the two sides would discuss a renewed trilateral trade deal with the US and Mexico. Ottawa had earlier indicated that it was cool to the idea of reviewing the deal as long as US tariffs lasted.

Mr Trump, citing Mr Ford’s threat, had earlier said he would

double his planned tariff on all steel and aluminium products

coming into the US from Canada.

“Let’s sit down and negotiate,” Mr Ford said, adding that talks were in the interest of both parties.

Ontario exports power to 1½ million homes in New York state, Minnesota and Michigan. REUTERS