Ontario suspends electric surcharge amid U.S. tariff war [Video]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday said he was temporarily suspending his province’s planned 25% surcharge on electricity exported to the U.S. after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed to renewed trade talks.

Ford said he and Lutnick “had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada” earlier Tuesday.

“We have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail,” Ford told reporters.

The comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated an already hot trade war early Tuesday morning, by saying he would double planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50%.

Trump announced those heightened tariffs on the heels of Ford saying that he would impose the surcharge on electricity imports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.

Ford said Lutnick agreed to meet with him and the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

After the call between …