March 13, 2025
Trump signed new executive orders Thursday that delay tariffs on products sold into the U.S. that comply with the renegotiated North America free trade deal’s rules on country of origin and content.
Canada and Mexico are getting temporary reprieves from U.S. tariffs until April 2, when President Donald Trump threatens sweeping tariffs on all global imports.
Trump signed new executive orders Thursday that delay tariffs on products sold into the U.S. that comply with the renegotiated North America free trade deal’s rules on country of origin and content. However, he said 25 per cent tariffs scheduled to take effect on steel and aluminum imports will still go ahead next week on Mar. 12, as planned.
It’s not clear how those tariffs will mesh with Trump’s order giving the automotive sector a one-month delay on tariffs, because steel and aluminum are key components of vehicle production.
The Canadian government was scrambling to understand what volume of Canadian exports fall outside the trade deal rules, and may still be affected by tariffs, while the White House suggested it’s a lot — 62 per cent.
Still, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said Ottawa would delay the second phase of Canada’s retaliatory counter-tariffs on $125 billion worth of American imports until April 2, while the first phase against $30 billion worth of American products would remain in place.
So too does Premier Doug Ford’s decision to impose a 25 per cent export tax on Ontario electricity sold stateside, starting Monday. Ford issued a ministerial directive slapping the new levy on Ontario electricity that powers 1.5 million homes in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, saying “We have to follow through until he drops tariffs completely.” American booze will stay off LCBO shelves as well, he said.
Trump’s reprieve “takes a lot of pressure off a number of sectors,” said LeBlanc, but he pointed to the steel and aluminum tariffs next week, followed by the April 2 deadline, and speaking on CBC, said, “we’re not at the end of the road.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, speaking to the Star after Mexico’s reprieve was first announced, said, “We can’t only have a 30-day pause.”
Joly said the “big end game” for Canada is the April 2 deadline when Trump has promised to punish countries for what he views as “unfair” trade practices.
“The problem that we’ve been facing is the goalpost is always moving and always changing,” Joly said.
Still, Trump’s move represents a major reversal of his trading blow against Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, which caused market turmoil and rising concerns about the impact on American companies and consumers. It comes a day after the president granted carmakers a delay on tariffs until April 2.
Trump shrugged it off in an exchange with reporters, and leaned in on his threatened April 2 deadline for reciprocal tariffs, referring particularly to Canada’s dairy sector, cars, energy and lumber exports, suggesting the U.S. will hit all of them. “We don’t need any of those,” he said.
Trump denied his walk back had anything to do with the stock market reaction to the uncertainty he created, saying only that the short-term “disruption” would be worth it. “Globalist companies that have been ripping us off that won’t be able to rip us off any longer,” he said.
A White House fact sheet issued after Trump spoke said tariffs would not apply to the auto sector for now, and energy and potash products that fall “outside” the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — or the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, as it’s called in Canada — would face only 10 per cent tariffs. In the case of potash, it was a drop from the 25 per cent duty originally planned.
LeBlanc suggested that some companies in Canada may have decided not “to do the paperwork” to be certified under the CUSMA, and have opted to accept whatever tariff applies under the “most favoured nation” rate to their products, but he said finance department officials did not know how many Canadian exporters might fall into that category, nor how quickly they could do the paperwork now, in order to avoid application of tariffs, despite the latest reprieve.
The news first trickled out via media reports and came after Trump announced on social media he would grant Mexico an overall tariff reprieve because he had a good relationship with President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Before that, he’d slagged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once again, posting baselessly that “Trudeau is using the Tariff problem, which he has largely caused, in order to run again for Prime Minister.” Trudeau, whose replacement as Liberal leader is due to be selected this weekend, has confirmed he is not running again and will not remain as a “caretaker” prime minister.
Trump praised Mexico’s leader as “a wonderful woman,” and said Mexico is making “enormous progress” in tackling fentanyl and migration at the border with the U.S. The White House reasserted his tariffs are meant to address the “national security” imperative at the border.
B.C. Premier David Eby said Canadians are “pissed off” at Trump’s unpredictable ways, but that the U.S. president “has realized what we told him from the beginning, which is that these tariffs hurt Americans.
“And what’s also hurting is the uncertainty that the continued threat and removal of tariffs has on our country,” said Eby. “My message for the prime minister, for my colleagues across the country, and it’s one I’m sure they want to deliver to me too, is stand strong.
“We are not going to accept these continual threats, this continued uncertainty. We’re going to stand up for Canadians. This is unacceptable, and we’re going to ensure that the Americans understand how pissed off we are, how unified we are, how committed we are to working as a country to stand up for each other and our own independence on our own two feet.”
Speaking to the Star’s editorial board, Joly said Canada cannot keep living with the “melodrama” of layered tariff threats from Trump. Ottawa is trying to co-ordinate retaliatory tariffs with Mexico and other European allies, she said, but countries may be taking different approaches to the larger April 2 tariff threat.
“This is not only about us, but this is about all the other trading partners and how we will also have access to the American markets, but also in competition with others,” she said.
Joly said Trump wants to “broaden the negotiation” with Canada and has put other issues on the table including “military co-operation,” “water management,” and “intelligence sharing,” which has led Trudeau to the conclusion that he wants to weaken Canada economically with a goal of annexation.
Trump also sowed doubt Thursday about his commitment to NATO, saying it is “potentially good” but complaining about how much other countries take advantage of the U.S. in the alliance.
Trudeau called early reports of further exemptions or carve-outs from U.S. tariffs a “promising sign,” adding “any carve-outs that support any workers in Canada, even if it’s just one industry or another, are going to be a good thing.”
But he warned that “we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future,” and urged Canadians to stand together.
Trudeau said a phone conversation he had with Trump the day before was “colourful” without providing details. He also called the renegotiated Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade deal a “win-win-win” for all three countries, an outcome he noted is “perhaps is not true in real estate deals.”
“A win-lose is probably better for a someone who is experienced in business deals than a win-win,” Trudeau said, “but when it comes to countries, win-wins are actually the best outcomes.”
Trudeau also shrugged off Joly’s description of dealing with Trump as a “psychodrama,” saying he’d characterize it as “Thursday.”
“I’ve had 10 years of Donald Trump One, a historic once-in-a-century pandemic, inflation crises, war in Ukraine as Russia returns to war in Europe, as the Middle East is facing extraordinarily difficult situations,” he said.
“These have been complicated times. This is the job I signed up for. This is the job I will continue to do until the very last moment I’m doing this job.”
