Faisal Abbas 
A few hours after it was imposed, the White House announced on Tuesday evening the cancellation of the doubling of the customs duties decided by President Donald Trump on his country’s imports of Canadian steel and aluminum, which raised questions about the American trade strategies and the extent to which the US President, the billionaire businessman, realized its impact on the global economy. On Tuesday morning, Trump announced his intention to increase customs duties on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50%, justifying this by the decision of the Canadian province of Ontario to impose additional fees by 25% on electricity exports to three US states. This escalation raised concerns about the outbreak of a trade war between the two countries, and increased the losses of American stocks, especially since Canada is one of the largest commercial partners of the United States.
After consultations and talks, Trump retracted his decision to double the customs duties, and remained on the original 25%, after the province of Ontario announced the suspension of the imposition of additional fees on electricity exports to the United States, following “fruitful” talks between Prime Minister Ontario, Doug Ford, and US Minister of Trade Howard Lottenic. The two sides agreed to the meeting in Washington to discuss the renewal of the free trade agreement in North America, which Trump had imposed amendment during his first term, before the deadline for imposing mutual customs duties on April 2, although the fees imposed on steel and aluminum imports actually began to be applied at midnight Wednesday.
Canada is one of the largest sources of steel and aluminum to the United States, with the value of its exports from these two minerals to the United States in 2024 about $ 15 billion. Hence, any change in customs recognition of these imports has a direct impact on the Canadian economy and its mineral industries. Also, these changes affect American companies that depend on these imports in their productive operations.
He floundered in the policy of imposing customs duties
Recent weeks have seen several declines in the policies of the customs duties adopted by US President Donald Trump. FIn early February 2025, Trump announced the imposition of customs duties by 25% on his country’s imports from Canada and Mexico, justifying this with concerns related to illegal immigration and drug flow across the border, before he decided with his administration to reduce it on oil imports to only 10%.
After internal criticism and contacts with the leaders of the two countries, Trump decided to postpone the application of the new customs duties to the fourth of March. With the approaching application date, Trump said, perhaps about omitting, that the recognitions will be applied as of April, before officials in his administration showed that the scheduled date for the new tariff is the fourth of March. Once again, as the date of the application of these drawings approached, Trump had conversations with Canada and Mexico leaders, which led to a temporary suspension of the application of customs duties on a wide range of Canadian and Mexican products until April 2, after warnings of car manufacturers about the possible negative effects on the market and the high prices for consumers.
Trump’s declines were not limited to the customs duties imposed on Canada and Mexico, as he announced, in February 2025, the imposition of customs duties by 10% on all Chinese imports to the United States, as part of his strategy to pressure China on multiple issues, before returning last week and decided to increase these fees to 20%, after China decided to impose fees of up to 15% on a variety of US agricultural exports.
