Ontario Premier Doug Ford has agreed to temporarily suspend a 25% surcharge on electricity the province sells to the United States, after a "productive conversation" with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. 

The surcharge initially took effect on March 10, impacting roughly 1.5 million homes and businesses combined across Michigan, Minnesota and New York. Ford's office estimated the surcharge would generate as much as $400,000 in revenue per day, as part of a strategy from Ontario to "use every tool at its disposal" to shield the province from the impacts of Trump's on-again/off-again tariff strategy. 

CNBC reports that Ford and Lutnick met a day later, hours after Trump announced that he would be doubling existing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%. The premier and commerce secretary are scheduled to meet again in Washington, D.C. on March 13, where they're expected to engage in discussions about renewing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. 

"We have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail," Ford told reporters.

On March 6, President Trump paused planned 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada for 30 days, marking the second time he's delayed the levies in as many months. Even so, Canada's opening salvo of retaliatory tariffs has remained in place, impacting around C$30 billion ($21 billion) worth of U.S. products, including orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, cosmetics, motorcycles and paper products. A second wave of levies planned by the Canadian government valued around C$125 billion was put on hold, pending ongoing talks with the Trump administration.

Although Trump's 25% tariffs are still scheduled to take hold on April 2, the president said on March 11 that Canada's levies would "probably" be lower. When asked about whether he planned to follow through with the 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, he told reporters, "I'll let you know."