Trump's Trials - Trump backs off of Canada tariff hike as Ontario lets up on electricity threat

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

The day before steel and aluminum tariffs on all U.S. trading partners are set to go into effect, President Trump announced — and then hours later rescinded — tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum at double the rate of the rest of the world. Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Dettrow. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. An unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you NPR's coverage of President Trump acting on his own terms. And that means sometimes doing things that no American president has tried before. NPR is covering it all in stories

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TNCs apply. I'm Michelle Martin. New tariffs are in effect today, higher taxes on steel and aluminum coming into the US. The European Union said this morning that the move is unjustified. It will have its own counter tariffs next month, putting back into effect some that were on hold, and there will be new products that will be more expensive.

This caps a chaotic 24 hours in which President Trump announced and then rescinded even higher tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to tell us more about all this. Good morning, Danielle. Good morning, Michelle. Okay, so tell us more about the American tariffs going into effect today. Sure, so these are 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. They went into effect at midnight. And this is an expanded version of the steel and aluminum tariffs Trump imposed in his first term. Those had exceptions for some countries, including Canada and Mexico. But these tariffs happening now are for some countries, including Canada and Mexico. But these tariffs happening now are on all countries,

all steel and aluminum, no exceptions. Again, to explain, a tariff is a tax that companies in the US pay for goods they import. It is not, as Trump has said, money that other countries or companies pay to the US. So American companies that use steel and aluminum like car manufacturing energy They might all face higher costs now meaning consumers could see higher prices in those areas You know, there was a lot of drama over what these tariffs would look like for Canada specifically

So tell us more about what happened there. Yeah, so earlier this week in response to tariffs Trump had imposed on Canada Ontario premier Doug Ford announced a 25% surcharge on electricity exports from his province. So that would raise prices for American consumers. Well, Tuesday morning, Trump announced that in return he would make Canada's steel and aluminum tariffs 50, not 25%. That would be a very big deal as Canada is the largest supplier of both steel and aluminum to the US. But then a few hours later, the administration said, wait, we have an agreement.

Ford would remove the surcharge and Canadian officials would come to Washington this week to discuss renegotiating the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which is something Trump negotiated in his first term. In addition, the Trump administration said they'd impose 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum as they're doing for everyone else. So yes, this is a drawdown, but first of all, this shows just how chaotic Trump's tariff policy can be. And furthermore, 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum,

that's still substantial, it's gonna have real economic effects. Well, we're already seeing some of those effects, it would seem, in stock markets and consumer confidence. So what is Trump saying about that? What's his rationale here? Well, for these particular steel and aluminum tariffs, the administration has said national security is the rationale. They want to boost the American steel and aluminum industries. However, the evidence from the last time Trump imposed this type of tariffs suggests they weren't really the boon Trump wanted them to be. But to zoom out here, businesses and consumers are scared

by all of this. First off, because like we've said, tariffs can cause higher prices, they can also lead to retaliation like the EU is doing, but there's also just the uncertainty Trump injects into all of this. This term so far has been a flurry of tariffs imposed, tariff threats, tariff delays. All that uncertainty means businesses and consumers don't know what's coming, might hold back on spending. And by the way, there are more potential tariffs to come. In April, Trump could start imposing what he calls reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners, meaning there's possibly still more unpredictable

policy to come. That is NPR's Danielle Kersley. And, Danielle, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detro. Thanks for listening to Trump's

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