Trump doubles the rates planned on Canadian steel and 50% aluminum as the commercial war intensifies

President Donald Trump has declared Tuesday that it will double its rates expected in steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, intensifying a commercial war with the northern neighborhood of the United States and standing without fear from the recent riots of the stock market and increasing recession risks.

Trump has declared on social media that the increase in the rates that will take effect on Wednesday is a response to the increases in the prices that the provincial government of Ontario has put the electricity sold to the United States.

“I commissioned my secretary to the commerce to add a further 25%rate, to 50%, all the steel and aluminum that entered the United States from Canada, one of the highest tariff nations anywhere in the world”, published Trump on Tuesday on Truth Social.

After a brutal fainting of the stock market on Monday and further nervousness Tuesday, Trump faces greater pressure to demonstrate that he has a legitimate plan to grow the economy instead of pushing it into a recession. But so far the president doubles on the rates he has spoken repeatedly during the 2024 campaign and launching an economy once stable in absolute turbulence since the investors expected that he conducted with deregulation and tax cuts instead of colossal tax increases.

The President of the United States has provided a variety of explanations for his Canada antagonism, stating that its separate rates of 25% concern the smuggling of Fenanil and express objections in Canada by putting high taxes on dairy imports -casear that penalize US farmers.

But he continued to ask Canada to become part of the United States as a solution, a form of provocation that has raged Canadian leaders.

“The only thing that makes sense is that Canada became our dear state fifty,” Trump published Tuesday.

“This would make all the rates and everything else, disappear totally.”

The premier of Ontario Doug Ford, after responding to Trump, increasing the prices of electricity, declared Tuesday on MSNBC that US people and his company leaders had to speak against the “chaos” caused by the launch by Trump of a commercial war.

“If we go to a recession, it is done by a person alone. It is called the recession of President Trump, “Ford said.” It shouldn’t be like this. We should be shouting, both countries. “

The President of the United States condemned the use of electricity “as chip and threat of bargaining”, saying in a separate post on social media Tuesday on Tuesday that Canada “will pay a financial price for this so great that it will be read in the history books for many years to come!”

Ontario provides electricity in Minnesota, New York and Michigan and Trump has committed himself to declaring a national emergency in those states.

Trump also targeted Mexico with rates of 25% due to his dissatisfaction with drug trafficking and illegal immigration, although he suspended taxes on imports in accordance with the USMCA 2020 commercial pact for a month.

When asked if Mexico feared that he could face the same rates of 50% on Steel and Aluminum of Canada, the president Claudia Sheinbaum, said “No, we are respectful”.

Trump was intended to deliver an address on Tuesday afternoon to the company round table, a commercial association of CEO who during the 2024 campaign courted with the promise of tax rates of the lower companies for national producers. But its rates on Canada, Mexico, China, steel, aluminum – with plans for further more to arrive in Europe, Brazil, South Korea, pharmaceutical drugs, copper, timber and computer chips – would be equivalent to a huge tax excursion.

The vote of the stock market of no trust in the last two weeks puts the president with a constraint between his enthusiasm for the taxation of imports and his brand as a politician who includes business based on his experiences in the real estate, media and marketing sector.

The economist of Harvard University Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary for the Clinton Administration, put the chances of a 50-50 recession on Monday.

“All the emphasis on rates and all ambiguity and uncertainty have both the cold question and the increase in prices,” he published Summers on X.

“We are getting the worst of both worlds: concerns about inflation and an economic recession and greater uncertainty about the future and this slows down everything”.

The Goldman Sachs investment bank has revised its growth forecasts for this year at 1.7% from 2.2% previously. It has modestly increased its probability of recession to 20% “because the White House has the possibility of reducing changes in policies if the reduction risks begin to seem more serious”.

Trump tried to ensure the public that his rates would have caused some “transition” to the economy, with taxes that push more companies to start the transfer process to the United States to avoid rates. But he triggered the alarms in an interview broadcast on Sunday in which he did not exclude a possible recession.

“I hate predicting such things,” Trump said on Fox News Channel “Futures on Sunday morning”. “There is a transition period, because what we are doing is very big. We are bringing wealth back to America. It is an important thing. And there are always periods of – it takes some time. It takes some time. But I don’t do it – I think it should be fantastic for us. I want to say, I think it should be fantastic.”

The promise of great things to travel did not eliminate anxiety, with the S&P 500 share index that collapsed 2.7% on Monday in an unmistakable Trump collapse that canceled the income of the market that greeted its victory in November 2024. The S&P 500 index dropped upon 1% on Tuesday afternoon.

Trump has long entrusted on the stock market as an economic and political indicator to follow, only to ignore it apparently while it remains so far determined to impose rates. When he won the elections last year, he proclaimed that he wanted his mandate to be considered started on November 6, 2024 on the day of the elections, rather than his inauguration of January 20, 2025, so that he can be credited for the earnings of the post-electoral share market.

Trump also repeatedly warned of an economic fall if he lost his elections.

“If you don’t win, you will have a 1929 style depression. Have fun,” Trump said in an August event in Pennsylvania. [AP]

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