Doug Ford says he'd love a tariff 'refund' from Donald Trump

The U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Trump’s tariffs on Friday did not tackle the question of whether the U.S. should reimburse revenues raised by them, which by some estimates range from $130 billion to $170 billion. Ford made his pitch, telling CNN “we’d love to get a refund, like any other any other country, but I think more importantly, let’s come up with a resolution.”

Ford said the Supreme Court’s finding that Trump had no authority to impose border tariffs was a “positive message” as was a recent vote in Congress in which six Republicans joined the Democrats in a symbolic vote against the tariffs.

Pointing to November’s midterm elections, which will be held for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and a third of the seats in the U.S. Senate, Ford told CNN, “I’ve never seen so many Canadians all cheering on the Democrats.” 

At Queen’s Park, he told reporters he believes in Canada “not rushing” to negotiate with the Trump administration, saying countries that rushed to get a quick tariff reduction deal with the U.S. president got “screwed.”

“You know, no deal is better than a bad deal,” Ford said, citing Japan and the United Kingdom as examples of “countries getting screwed” by Trump.

“They all rushed in to get a deal, and all suddenly he turned on them like a rattlesnake,” Ford said. “So we’re going to be very cautious, and that’s a message to the federal government: Let’s make sure we have a proper deal.”

However, within an hour Ford was on CNN, where he underscored the business and investment uncertainty caused by the tariff war. “I think we have to get to a resolution as quickly as possible to really give the American people and the Canadian people the certainty that they need,” he said.

Ford, whose anti-tariff advertising campaign on U.S. airwaves last fall was slammed by the U.S. ambassador to Canada as akin to foreign interference, went further when asked about the impact of the president’s changing tariff orders.

Ford said the uncertainty is harmful, and speculated on why the president reversed previous U.S. support for the as-yet-unopened, Canadian-built Gordie Howe Bridge that spans the Detroit River at Windsor.

“Follow the money,” Ford told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Why did he make this all of a sudden, abrupt change when he actually endorsed the Gordie Howe Bridge (in 2017) and he wanted to expedite it as quickly as possible which is the right decision?”

The New York Times has reported that Matthew Moroun, a member of the family that owns and operates the Ambassador Bridge at the same border crossing, donated $1 million to a Trump-aligned political action committee, on Jan. 16, just weeks before Trump vowed to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge. The White House and the organization denied any connection.

The president reacted in outrage to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, which found Trump did not have the authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to enact so-called border emergency tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China, or to levy “reciprocal” tariffs on America’s global trading partners to correct what he called unfair trading practices.

Trump responded by levying a new 10 per cent global tariff under a different law, using Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That law permits the president to levy up to 15 per cent tariffs for up to 150 days without congressional approval. The White House confirmed Canada and Mexico would have an exemption from the new tariffs for goods that comply with rules of origin in the free trade deal known as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). 

On Saturday Trump threatened to raise the new tariff rate to 15 per cent. As of midday Monday, no changed order had been issued.

Trump, in a series of social media posts on Monday morning, claimed the Supreme Court ruling “inadvertently” gave him permission to wield other laws to impose tariffs, warning he has “many” to pick from.

“And they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the tariffs as initially used,” said the U.S. president, threatening any country that “wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.” 

Ford said it’s “fortunate” that Canada remains buffered from the latest round of tariffs “as of right now,” but noted that “things change on a daily basis as everyone knows.

“President Trump could wake up and, you know, a couple options: we move forward and we get a deal, or he might blow up the CUSMA deal.”

In Ottawa, the federal government remained largely silent on the U.S. court ruling and Trump’s reaction, other than a social media post by the Canada-U.S. trade minister that said the ruling reinforced Canada’s view the tariffs were “unjustified.”

The federal government hopes the upcoming review of CUSMA does not devolve into an all-out renegotiation and continental dogfight over rules that are critical to integrated supply chains and cross-border trade.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has not yet commented directly, and had no public appearances scheduled Monday.

Carney did not attend question period as the House of Commons resumed after a weeklong break. His office did not respond to the Star’s requests for comment, but referred to another minister’s office.

Carney begins a trip Thursday that will see him visit India, Australia and Japan. In a news release Monday, he underscored his goal to forge “new partnerships abroad to create greater certainty, security and prosperity at home.”

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said Monday that Carney has failed, despite the “signature central plank of his campaign,” to strike a deal to get U.S. tariffs removed, “so it’s up to Mark Carney to explain why here we are, almost a year into his term, and he has failed to get the deal that he promised Canadians.”

With files from Rob Ferguson