Your World Tonight - Canada retaliates, steel town reacts to U.S. tariffs, waiting for Putin, and more

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Ottawa is putting reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods after another 25 per cent tariff came into effect on steel and aluminum. Prime minister-designate Mark Carney says he is waiting until he is sworn in before speaking to U.S. president Donald Trump.People in Ontario’s steel town, Hamilton, say they are worried about their jobs. And the effect will trickle down to the whole local economy. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says the tariffs will stay in place until the country’s manufacturing catches up.Also: The Bank of Canada cuts its trend-setting rate by a quarter of a percentage point. It also signalled an economic slowdown has started — spurred in part by the uncertainty brought on by tariff chaos.And: The world is waiting to hear what Russian President Vladimir Putin will say about a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump says it’s a good deal; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed on. But it will fall apart if Putin rejects it.Plus: Demonstrators in New York City support a Palestinian activist arrested for on-campus demonstrations at Columbia University, the Canadian Navy's top commander is in Antarctica, and more.

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

This is a CBC Podcast. We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted. In a trade fight changing day by day, even hour by hour, Canada is punching back dollar for dollar. Billions in countermeasures, retaliation to American tariffs that are testing the strength of Canadian steel and aluminum, and the communities they support. The job losses are very scary because it's a trickle down effect too because people aren't going to come to restaurants if they don't have a job and it goes on and on right. Welcome to Your World Tonight. It's Wednesday, March 12th just before 6 p.m. Eastern. I'm Susan Bonner also on the podcast.

Now we all eagerly await the Russian response and urge them strongly to consider ending all hostilities. So people will stop dying, so bullets will stop flying, and so a process can begin to find a permanent peace. With the ball in Moscow's court, the push for a ceasefire deal to keep rolling. A proposal to pause fighting for 30 days, backed by U.S. and Ukrainian officials who hope the momentum makes it all the way to Vladimir Putin. Federal leaders say they won't back down when it comes to defending Canadian sovereignty and this country's economy. Retaliatory tariffs are coming into effect

after Donald Trump followed through with his promise of 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States. Tom Perry has more on today's developments. We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted. The federal government caught in a battle it never wanted iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted.

The federal government caught in a battle it never wanted with a once reliable trading partner now gone rogue. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, two key Canadian exports. Finance Minister Dominique LeBlanc says Ottawa will respond with 25% tariffs of its own on nearly $30 billion worth of American steel and aluminum products along with other goods. The U.S. administration is once again inserting disruption and disorder into an incredibly successful trading partnership and raising the costs of everyday goods for Canadians and American households alike.

Le Blanc was joined today by industry minister François-Philippe Champagne and foreign affairs minister Melanie Jolie who says Canada will continue to defend its economy and sovereignty from a U.S. president who keeps talking about turning this country into America's 51st state. Thank you very much. Thank you for everything you do. That fight will soon fall to Mark Carney, who will be sworn in as prime minister within days. Carney today toured a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, and said he would be prepared to sit down with Trump. Under a position where there's respect for Canadian sovereignty,

and we're working for a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade. Currently met today with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who this week had his own run-in with the US President. Trump threatened to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum after Ford said he would place a 25% surcharge on Ontario electricity sold in the US. Ford suspended that plan and will instead join Dominic LeBlanc in Washington tomorrow

at a meeting with Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Ford spoke today with his fellow premiers, including Alberta's Danielle Smith, who has advocated for what she describes as a more diplomatic approach toward Trump and who was reportedly furious at Ford. How tense were things with Daniel Smith today? It's not too bad. You know, I've talked to Danielle and her jurisdiction's a little different than ours and at the end of the conversation everyone agreed, Team Canada.

Ford says he's going to Washington tomorrow ready to talk about the USMCA, the trade deal Trump struck with Canada and Mexico in his first term. LeBlanc says he just wants to get US tariffs on Canada lifted. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. For now, the Trump administration is holding firm on those tariffs, even with the Canadian retaliation and more countries starting to hit back in a trade war going global. Katie Simpson has more from Washington. The president is here to protect American workers. New steel and aluminum tariffs are here to stay according to

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. At this point there's nothing any trading partner can do because he says the president views this as a national security concern. I mean, we can't be in a war and rely on steel and aluminum from some other country. The 25% tariffs are a welcome move to some in the U.S. steel industry who hope American-made products will become more competitive. Guys like me and all the processing centers, all the rolling mills, you know, it's going to support U.S. jobs. Brian Nelson and his father run Spartan Sheet and Coil in Detroit, Michigan. While he expects this to cause some disruptions

and make the cost of steel products go up, he says it will be worth it if it creates American jobs. It's a short-term pain for long-term gain. Some of that pain will be felt soon as the European Union rolls out its retaliation plan. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the EU will impose tariffs on $28 billion US worth of American goods, from booze to farm products including beef and poultry. The European Union treats us very badly.

Donald Trump is not wavering in his tariff plan, promising to impose additional tariffs starting April 2nd. His team is coming up with rates for individual countries based on how fairly he thinks they treat the US. Canada is absolutely one of the worst. During a meeting in the Oval Office with the Irish Taoiseach, Trump repeatedly attacked Canada, singling out Ontario Premier Doug Ford after he imposed and then paused a surcharge on electricity exports to the US. Everybody said, oh they just, I, this will be one in one hour.

And they announced what we were going to do. And they withdrew their little threat. Yesterday, Trump called Ford a gentleman. But now members of his administration, including Howard Lutnick, keep going after the Ontario premier. You know, he thought he'd be sort of the big man and tackle Donald Trump, but you know you can't tackle Donald Trump. This is par for the course when it comes to Trump's style of governing,

as he digs in and pushes ahead with his America First agenda. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Mexico's president is taking a wait-and and see approach to America's trade war. The nation was also hit with aluminum and steel tariffs today, potentially crippling an industry worth more than $4 billion. Claudia Schoenbaum says her government will work with the White House to resolve the issue and make its decision before April 2nd when Trump has threatened counter levies on all U.S. imports.

The cross-border conflict is already starting to impact supply chains and assembly lines, but in some Canadian communities the fallout is expected to go much further. And from restaurants to retailers, people there are bracing for a wider economic hit. Anis Hadari has more. bracing for a wider economic hit. Anis Hadari has more. Really concerned about the tariffs, should never have happened. In a Hamilton restaurant, Doug Cruz is one of many worried about what today brings for his city, known for its steel industry. It employs a lot of people. Everybody knows that. I just hope it gets worked out really quickly because this is bad for the economy. A couple of tables away, Arlene McCormick has similar fears.

The job losses are very scary because it's a trickle-down effect too because people aren't going to come to restaurants if they don't have a job and it goes on and on, right? We're scared. Like I'm getting ready to retire in the next few years. Pat Schirk has worked at a rail car company in Hamilton for decades and he says everyone in his plant is talking about these tariffs. I don't know for a fact but the word that's going around is if this continues we all might

be out by Christmas. It's not just a worry in Steel Town. Companies and communities that rely on Canadian aluminum are also dealing with the 25% tariff. But even before that took effect, clients are not asking for our products anymore on the U. S. I. Michelle Angela Marsh is president of Negus Innovation near Montreal. It makes products from aluminum and sells to the United States and has already cut back on staffing. He says customers have been waiting to see if tariffs went away. We're cutting off eight hours on a 40 hour week for some of our workers

because we don't have enough work right now to get them to work 40 hours a week. More than 90% of Canadian aluminum goes to the United States, worth billions of dollars. From today, nothing is closed. We're full booked. Everything is going as it was yesterday. Dona Pearson is president of the union that represents workers at aluminum manufacturer Rio Tinto. His 1,500 members haven't seen layoffs yet, and he thinks the company can keep going, for now, under some tariffs, but not indefinitely. We don't know yet if it's going to slow down or what. We're still waiting what's going to happen with American tariffs.

One thing that is happening, this round of tariffs is different from the last time under the first Trump administration. Back in 2018, lots of items made from steel and aluminum were excluded from tariffs. This time around, what are called derivative products also count. So whether it's a steel blade or an aluminum window frame, it's probably getting tariffed. Back at his manufacturing plant, Michel-André Lamache is still trying to figure it all out. It's taking so much of our time. Just what's going to happen, how do we minimize the impact and so on.

And yet we have no control and everything is changing on a daily basis. It's an expensive waiting game with thousands of jobs at play. Anis Hadari, CBC News, Calgary. Coming up on the podcast, another interest rate cut in the face of economic uncertainty with a warning it can't fix the main problem. Awaiting Russia's response to the U.S.-Ukraine ceasefire proposal, plus politics in the Southern Pole. Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada's next Prime Minister Friday.

His new cabinet will also be unveiled. The ceremony will take place at Rideau Hall. Carney is expected to call an election in the days after his swearing-in and before Parliament resumes on March 24th. The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate for the seventh consecutive time but it's the first rate cut since the start of the US-Canada trade war. Katie Nicholson now on how that fight is affecting the central bank's decision-making. Good morning and welcome. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem was already Katie Nicholson now on how that fight is affecting the central bank's decision making.

Good morning and welcome. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem was already likely to lower the key lending rate. Then the tariff war began. We are now facing a new crisis. Depending on the extent and duration of new U.S. tariffs, the economic impact could be severe. The uncertainty alone is already causing harm. The uncertainty itself is adding cost, pervasive uncertainty,

and uncertainty about to both, uncertainty. There's quite a bit of uncertainty about... Bank of Canada officials use the words uncertain or uncertainty 25 times during the 44-minute briefing. Now at 2.75%, there's still wiggle room for the bank to further cut the rate if it needs to temper inflation in the months ahead. But Macklem made clear, the bank can only do so much. Monetary policy cannot offset the impacts of a trade war.

We're going to get weaker economic activity, we're going to get higher prices, higher inflation. We can't change that. The Bank of Canada has a very limited set of tools. Pedro Altunas is the chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada. He says all of the uncertainty is already affecting consumer and business confidence. Findings echoed in a Bank of Canada survey released today. Is it going to be applied for a week, a day, a month or is it you know kind of a permanent policy that would really throw the economy into recession. So I think this is all the anxiety that we're dealing with. So what's now?

Brian Hamlin's Toronto comic book shop among many small businesses bracing for impact. Hamlin fears he could get hit with a tariff double whammy. Comics most for the most part are printed in Canada and then shipped to the states and then shipped back to us. So it's kind of a minefield figuring out what they're actually going to be impacted and how they're going to be impacted. Fueling his anxiety much of his stock has to be ordered months ahead. He has no idea if April's issues are going to arrive with surprise charges. If all of a sudden our bills, our invoices are like 25 or 50 percent more,

I truly don't really know what we do in that scenario, but it's kind of we just have to plowow forward as if things hoping that things will be normal. And hope as Canadians tighten their purse strings it doesn't also strangle his sales. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Toronto. Electric vehicle battery maker Northvolt AB has filed for bankruptcy in Sweden casting doubt on the future of thousands of Quebec jobs. The company was planning a mega-factory near Montreal. The $7 billion project was backed by the province and the federal government and was expected

to create work for more than 5,000 people. Northvolt's North America unit says it will honour its financial commitments, but as the sale of the company and its assets are now in the hands of a court-appointed trustee. Canada will host a meeting of G7 foreign ministers starting tomorrow. The war in Ukraine will top the agenda with a new ceasefire proposal on the table and officials waiting for the Kremlin's response. Briar Stewart has the latest on that story. It's a great honor to have you in the Oval Office and have you at the White House.

As US President Donald Trump met with the Prime Minister of Ireland at the Oval Office, he said that US officials were en route to Moscow, where Washington will try to sell its plan for a 30-day ceasefire to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has previously said he's against any kind of short-term truce. I've gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing. Trump is expected to speak with Putin by phone this week.

Russia's president now faces a dilemma. He repeatedly talks about how he's ready for negotiations but unwilling to make any concessions. The head-spinning developments between Ukraine and the U.S., which saw a quick reversal of the decision to halt military aid and curb intelligence sharing, has shifted the pressure onto Moscow. Yeah, there are things you could do that wouldn't be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. Trump provided no further details on that, but did say that the ceasefire plan, which has not been made public,

has specifics about which land would be included and where forces on both sides would have to withdraw to. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says if the deal is approved, during the 30 days, negotiators will work to come up with a longer-term peace settlement, including, Zelenskyy says, security guarantees. In Kliviri, an industrial city in southern Ukraine, residents standing outside of an apartment building damaged in a Russian air attack want peace, but don't have much faith

that even if there is a ceasefire, it will last. If the war ends, it will be temporary, said one man. Russia will use the time to resupply its arsenal and make another blow. In Moscow, some wonder what's the point. We dominate on the battlefield now, says one man. We've worked so long for it. That's why a ceasefire isn't the right thing to do. At this point, one simply doesn't know where Putin is heading.

Charles Kupchan is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and says the talks are headed in the right direction, but there are many unknowns. Under ideal circumstances, you would get Ukrainian and Russian forces to pull back. Heavy weapons would be excluded from this zone. You would then introduce some kind of international force. Just who that would be and how they would enforce the ceasefire is still very unclear. Briar Stewart, CBC News, London. It is a contentious case testing the limits of free speech and immigration laws in the United States.

A graduate student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests has been detained and could be deported. Chris Reyes reports. It doesn't matter if you break no laws. A crowd of protesters filled the square across from a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, while inside lawyers of Mahmoud Khalil pleaded with a judge to release the pro-Palestinian activist from custody in Louisiana and to have his case transferred to New York, where he resides with his wife. Khalil was arrested on Saturday by US immigration officers who said they were acting on an order from the Trump administration to revoke his permanent resident status for his role in the student protests last year at Columbia

University. Ramzi Qassem is part of Khalil's legal team. Mr. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident. He was coming home with his U.S. citizen wife, who is eight months pregnant, and he was taken by U.S. government agents in retaliation, essentially for exercising his First Amendment rights, for speaking up in defense of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond for being critical of the U.S. government

and of the Israeli government. Khalil's lawyers have filed a petition to have him return to New York while his legal fight plays out. President Trump's border czar Tom Homan has called Haleel a national security threat. The White House has accused him of leading activities aligned with Hamas, a U.S. designated terror group. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this. This is not about free speech. This is about people that don't have a right to be in the United States to begin with no one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green

card by the way if you tell us when you apply for your visa and by the way I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti Jewish student anti Semitic activities I intend to shut down your universities if you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa. I hope we would. In court, Haleel's lawyers called the government's case weak. Ramzi Qassem said it will be an uphill battle to prove their accusations. The theory that they have put forward in court is a weak one. It raises very

serious constitutional questions and to the extent that we can tell, their reasons for putting them in removal proceedings are equally questionable. At the protest, many everyday New Yorkers say they support Jalil's cause, concerned that his arrest represents a dangerous overreach by the Trump administration. The right to protest is sacred. Without it, we cannot stop them from doing whatever they want to do, no matter what they do. The fact that there was no warrant for him, he did nothing wrong. He committed no crimes.

This is just a clear example of how this administration is going to treat anybody who is speaking out against them. Another hearing is set later this week while Jalil remains in custody in Louisiana. Chris Reyes, CBC News, New York. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News New York. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in.

Greenland is set to form a new government. The Democrats took home a surprise win after last night's parliamentary elections. The party got nearly 30 percent of the vote compared to just nine percent in the last election. The election was held in the face of ongoing threats from Donald Trump to take control of the Arctic island. The Democrats favor a gradual path towards Greenland's independence from Denmark. In campaign documents, the party said it would be open to talks with the U.S. on commercial interests. Canadian scientists in Antarctica are welcoming a high-ranking visitor. The Canadian Navy's top commander came aboard the first of its kind mission and he came with a message about security on the distant continent and closer to home.

Susan Ormiston is travelling with the expedition. Fight for the still! The commander of the Canadian Navy greeted on board HMCS Margaret Brooke. Welcome aboard. Welcome to Antartica. For two weeks now, the Navy ship has been a research hub for Canadian scientists doing climate work near the southern pole working at a breathless pace to gather as much data as they can with little time left. You know one of my one of my goals in coming here was to make the Navy fall in

love with science so that they would just want to you know keep working with us. That's Brent Else from the University of Calgary, studying carbon levels in the Southern Ocean. Vice Admiral Topshi wouldn't commit, but he was intrigued by what he saw. My feeling right now from having talked to the scientists and seeing the crew on board and the knowledge that we've gained,

I think it is worthwhile. But Topshi has another more strategic goal for operation projection. We can see what China and Russia have been doing in and around the Canadian North. I wonder what's going on in the South Pole. He toured a Chilean research base today on the shores of Maxwell Bay, supported by the Chilean Air Force. The base is situated right between the Great Wall, a Chinese station, and a Russian one, with its own Orthodox church.

As far as China and Russia, it's a different thing coming down here and actually seeing it in person. Do you think there's a security concern here in Antarctica, as there is in the Arctic? I definitely do. I am concerned that we, the whole agreement that we would not militarize the Arctic, that we would not exploit the resources of the Antarctic Circle, could change. With world politics shaking, he says, the Navy needs to better understand the tensions at both poles. This ship has been north of the Arctic Circle, it's crossed the equator, and next week it's going to go south of the Antarctic Circle.

There's not a lot of ships that have done that. Topshi flew out today, but this ship expects to sail across the Antarctic Circle on Friday. Susan Ormiston, CBC News, Maxwell Bay, Antarctica. We close in Belém, Brazil, host of this year's COP30 climate change conference where a focus will be cutting carbon emissions but the preparations involve cutting down trees. Construction crews working on a new four-lane, 13-kilometre highway that runs straight through a section of the Amazon rainforest.

The road aims to ease traffic in the city ahead of COP 30 in November. But the irony of having a swath of protected rain forest clear cut for a conference on climate change? Well, it's not lost on people who work closely with the ecosystem. Silvia Sardinha is a veterinarian who rehabilitates wild animals in the region. We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, which is the natural environment of these species.

It does directly affect the conservation of these animals. The highway raises more questions about the environmental impact of the massive COP conferences, already facing scrutiny about the huge amounts of air travel they require. The Brazilian government says the highway will be sustainable with bike lanes and solar-powered lighting. And many residents say Belem in northern Brazil is often neglected, and infrastructure upgrades like the highway are badly needed. Thank you for joining us on Your World Tonight for Wednesday, March 12th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again.