President Donald Trump’s latest move declared to the world that he is not playing around in this trade war. Trump announced that he will be raising tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%. The president’s actions come in response to the governing body of Ontario raising prices on energy that is sold to Americans.
President Trump announced that the U.S. will declare a national emergency on energy to help with the heightened prices. He also offered Canada a solution to stop additional tariffs from being imposed. The solution: Canada becoming the United States’ 51st state.
“The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World,” Trump said in a social media post. “And your brilliant anthem, ‘O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
Members of the Canadian government were not fond of Trump’s solution and admonished the additional tariffs.
“Markets are tanking. He needs to drop his tariffs and come to the table to negotiate a fair trade deal. Until he does, we won’t back down.” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a post on X.
Ford also said in an interview that the tariffs are hurting both countries. He said both countries “should be booming” rather than fighting and regressing.
The tariffs announcement did cause an immediate reaction in the U.S. stock market. The market is down 9% from its all-time high set a month ago, according to the AP. The DOW and S&P 500 are down following the announcement.
The volatility of the trade war has economists disagreeing on the forecast for America’s future. Some economists have the potential for a recession at as high as 50%. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that Americans should “absolutely not” brace for a recession.
President Trump has not refuted the potential of a recession but has justified the recent economic dip to growing pains due to the legislation that he is putting in place.
It is too early to forecast the future of the trade war, but with discussions happening every day, there will be more updates to come in the future.
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