He has done it again. Donald Trump has announced that, from tomorrow, tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports will be doubled to 50 per cent. In a statement on Truth Social, the President reiterated his call for Canada – which he labelled ‘one of the highest tariffing nations anywhere in the world’ – to become ‘the Fifty First State’. He explained that he was imposing the latest tariffs in response to a decision by Ontario premier Doug Ford to slap a 25 per cent tax on electricity exports to northern US states. Doug Ford’s policy was itself issued in retaliation to the sweeping 25 per cent tariffs that Trump had initially placed on imports from Canada.
It is fair to say that this trade equivalent of tit-for-tat is not impressing the markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its losses after the President’s announcement, falling more than 400 points, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1
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