Canada's largest province may halt all electricity exports for US if US President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his promise to introduce tariffs. This was stated by the Premier of the province of Ontario, Doug Ford, quoted by France Press, writes BTA.
He made the threat after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and representatives of other provinces gathered to discuss how to respond to threats made by Donald Trump.
Even before taking office on Jan. 20, he threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, citing the opioid and immigration crises as justification.
"We will go all the way, depending on the development of the situation, we will even go as far as cutting off the export of electricity to Michigan, New York state and Wisconsin,", said Doug Ford, whose province borders these American states.
Last year, the province of Ontario exported 12 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to the US states of Minnesota, New York and Michigan, which supplied 1.5 million households, Doug Ford's team told AFP.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office has not commented on whether it supports such a proposal.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, however, said at a press conference in Ottawa after the meeting that "a number of provincial premiers" have spoken out "in favor of a strong Canadian response to unjustified tariffs".
The Canadian prime minister, who traveled to Florida in late November to meet with Donald Trump, said this week that the tariffs would have a "devastating" influence on the country.
According to Canadian media, the government plans to present a border security plan worth more than $700 million to the US president-elect's team in the coming weeks.
During Trump's first term, the US imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminum imports, to which Ottawa responded with retaliatory tariffs on certain products.