March 7, 2025 - President Donald Trump paused across-the-board tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a month, but Canadian leaders vowed to maintain retaliatory measures until the threats vanish.

While signing executive orders in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon, Trump recounted the action to remove 25% duties on all goods covered by the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement as well as 10% on fossil fuels and minerals. He said separate proposed 25% duties on aluminum and steel from Canada and other nations would proceed on March 12, as well as global reciprocal tariffs on April 2.

“Those aren’t modified, those are happening next week, and the big one will be on April 2 when reciprocal tariffs [come],” Trump told reporters. “We don’t need trees from Canada. We don’t need cars from Canada. We don’t need energy from Canada. We don’t need anything from Canada.”

The announcement comes a day after Trump gave a 30-day tariff reprieve to the big three automakers – Ford, GM and Stellantis – in light of the heavily-integrated cross border vehicle assembly process. There was no indication from Canadian leaders they would drop the C$30 billion in tariffs they launched in retaliation on Tuesday when the US first levied the duties.

But they did postpone a scheduled further C$125 billion in measures to at least April 2 from around March 25. Officials said cross-border talks continue.

Projects Prodded

The trade war has had at least the benefit of unifying Canadians and forcing government levels to advance mining projects, John Turner, head of the mining practice at law firm Fasken in Toronto, said in an interview on Thursday.

“The only thing that I can see that is good about this is it’s caused Canada, both federally and in the provinces, to make sure that we’re advancing projects, that we have the opportunity to send our metals to other places and reduce some of these interprovincial barriers,” Turner said by phone. “This should have been done 20 years ago, but I’m glad that people are talking about it with some conviction right now.”

Markets dropped Thursday on tariff fears. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 427.51 points or 1% to 42,579.08 in New York. The S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged 286.78 points or about 1.2% to end the day at 24,584.04.

“Trump’s ultimately driven by the market, and we saw some of the market went down when he said he was going to do [the tariffs] – on Monday, the market was negative,” Turner said. “I don’t think the market’s there for that.”

Turner said he was at a mining discussion this week when a presenter said 60% of the nickel for the American military comes from Ontario.

“Are you really going to shoot yourself in the foot and add 25% of that cost? It just doesn’t make sense.”

‘Psychodrama’

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Wednesday Canada wouldn’t stand for a “psychodrama” every 30 days. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday morning he had a “colourful but substantive” call with Trump.

“Our goal remains to get these tariffs, all tariffs removed,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We will not be backing down from our response tariffs until such a time as the unjustified American tariffs on Canadian goods are lifted.”

Premiers across the country echoed the stance, from David Eby in British Columbia through Doug Ford in Ontario. Ford plans to impose a 25% tax on electricity exported to New York, Michigan and Minnesota on Monday.

“A pause on some tariffs means nothing until President Trump removes the threat of tariffs for good,” Ford posted online. “We will be relentless.”