‘Real anxiety’: Hamilton steel industry braces for Trump’s doubled steel tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday to increase steel tariffs from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, landing another potentially devastating blow to Hamilton’s steel industry.

Trump says doubling the tariffs is necessary to protect national security and industry in the U.S.

With fears it could devastate the Canadian steel industry, Ford says he’s ready to fight back.

“But regarding electricity, everything’s on the table right now,” said Ford.

That could mean matching Trump’s tariffs with a 25 per cent surcharge on Ontario power to customers in New York, Michigan and Minnesota.

“I always say, everything is on the table right now. And we had an agreement before that that he was going to take off the other 25 per cent to keep it at 25 per cent, and unfortunately they broke a verbal agreement,” said Ford.

Ford is also calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to match Trump’s new tariffs dollar for dollar with a new 25 per cent tariff on American goods.

“You’re either standing up for Canada and protecting people’s jobs, their livelihoods, protecting communities and the people and the jobs that they have, or you sit back and get steamrolled,” said Ford.

READ MORE: Hamilton steel industry at risk as Trump announces tariff increase

The prime minister is taking a more cautious approach.

“We will take some time, not much, some time, because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on the trading relationship,” said Carney.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Steel Producers Association says the move could bring the steel industry in the country to a standstill. Canada is the largest supplier of steel for the United States, and the now-doubled levies are expected to have a devastating impact on the steel industry – particularly in manufacturing hubs and ‘steel towns’ like Hamilton.

“We’re going to see layoffs, we’re going to see plant closures possibly, we’re going to see the impact of that on families,” said Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath.

Horwath says some steelmakers in the city don’t even know if they’ll survive these tariffs.

She says the city is doing everything it can to help.

“I’m continuing to push for things like solutions that are steel-oriented, pushing for things like when there’s big infrastructure projects, whether it’s here in Hamilton, whether it’s LRT, whether it’s wastewater facilities, regardless of what it is, the materials that go into those projects should be made in Ontario, hopefully made in Hamilton,” said Horwath.

The head of the steelworkers union at Stelco – with almost 2,000 members – says the company has already lost business to tariffs and it could get worse.

“Stelco now is just selling to Canadian customers. If those customers in turn had American customers they’re selling orders to, they’re probably going to lose that because nobody’s going to pay a 50 per cent tariff, so that could hurt Stelco’s sales to those Canadian customers,” said Steelworkers Union President Ron Wells.

But amid the doom and gloom, retired steelworker David Llewellen says Canadian steel is high quality and should always be able to find a market.

“Even though we’re going to get tariffs on our steel, I’m quite sure we can use it in our own country or there will be other countries looking for that grade of steel,” said Llewellyn.

The last time Ontario put a surcharge on electricity to the U.S., in March, the province says it collected $260,000 from the Americans – that was in just a matter of hours.

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