GOP lawmaker on Ontario electricity surcharge: 'It's only going to help Trump'

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said Monday that Ontario’s 25-percent surcharge on electricity exports to his state — announced in response to President Trump’s tariffs on Canada — will only help the U.S. president win support from his base.

The Minnesota Republican told NewsNation’s Joe Khalil on Monday that the additional charges are a “mistake,” noting Trump ran on tariffs and is following through on a campaign promise.

“The more they try to make it painful on Americans, the more it’s going to strengthen Donald Trump,” Emmer said about the Canadians. “He told everyone when he campaigned that this is what he was going to do, and he was going to work for Americans.”

“What the Canadians are doing is a mistake in my mind,” he continued. “It’s only going to help Donald Trump in his argument that they don’t care about you, I’m the only one who does.”

The government of Ontario announced Monday it is applying a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports to New York, Minnesota and Michigan in response to U.S. tariffs on Canada.

The surcharge will affect electricity sales for 1.5 million homes and businesses across the three states, the Ontario government said. In total, it could cost the states up to $400,000 per day.

New market rules are going into place requiring Canadian electricity sellers to add a $10 per megawatt-hour surcharge, equivalent to a quarter of the electricity’s average value, to the cost of power for sales to the U.S., according to a statement from Ontario’s Office of the Premier.

The additional charges are a response to 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports to the U.S. announced last week by the Trump administration. Trump announced and then walked back tariffs on different occasions, leading to some confusion about the extent and applicability of the orders.

Following the initial announcement, Trump exempted carmakers from the tariffs and then delayed them for a month for goods covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the update to the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump renegotiated during his first term.

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