Your World Tonight - Tariff whiplash, Ontario suspends energy surcharge, Ukraine and the U.S. discuss ceasefire deal, and more

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

The U.S. president threatened a 50% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum only to walk it back hours later, causing industry confusion on both sides of the border. Donald Trump had said he doubled the levy, set to take effect overnight, in retaliation for Ontario’s surcharge on energy exports.Also: Ukraine backs a U.S. proposal for a 30-day truce with Russia. Officials from Kyiv and Washington are in Saudi Arabia to discuss a plan to end the 3-year war. The possible deal still needs to be presented to Russia for approval.And: Canadian snowbirds get caught in the net of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, as new White House rules force non-permanent residents to register with the U.S. government or face penalties.Plus: Steel and aluminum industries brace for impact, Duterte is arrested in the Philippines and now on way to the Hague, melting glaciers and more.

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. The temperature needs to come down. And I thought this was the right decision. They understand how serious we are about the electricity and the tariffs.

We need to sit down and move this forward. Hairpin turns in the US-Canada trade war that will see negotiations move ahead after some powerful threats get pulled back for now. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Tuesday March 11th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. powerful threats get pulled back for now. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Tuesday, March 11th, coming up on 6pm Eastern. 25% tariff that was going to kick in at 12.01 tomorrow morning

was going to be hard enough. 50% I think we need to start thinking about the US market being closed to the Canadian steel. Donald Trump's move to double devastating tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum products is being paused after Ontario agreed to suspend its surcharge on electricity. Some relief for industries and workers bracing for everything and reeling from uncertainty. It has been another dizzying day in this conflict and we're tracking all the developments. The new statements coming from the White House, the Canadian officials trying to make sense

of them in Ottawa and the impact it's having on businesses and jobs. But we begin in Washington with Paul Hunter. There's a very strong man in Canada who said he was going to charge a surcharge or a tariff on electricity coming into our country. He has called and he said he's not going to do that. In the near impossible challenge of keeping up with US President Donald Trump's threats, the will he or won't he slam Canada with super sky-high tariffs on certain Canadian exports to the U.S., a change of heart in a way on all sides, again, outside the White House.

Referencing word from Ontario Premier Doug Ford today that Ontario will, for now, not put a surcharge on electricity to the US as it had threatened. So I respect that but we were just informed that he's not going to do that. Based on that from Ford Trump was asked will he now end his threat to put 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum double his previous threat of 25% effective tomorrow. Trump again citing Doug Ford and hinting, indeed he may well back down. Well you reduce it.

Well I'm looking at that, but probably so, yeah. He was a gentleman. The White House later confirming that yes, a mere 25% tariff is now the plan, much less than 50%, but still whopping. I said it's absolute chaos out there right now. We need to move forward jointly. For his part, Ford telling reporters in Toronto earlier

he and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Ludnick had had a conversation on the raging tariff war. It just hurts both countries. Ford said Ludnick reached out to him and they've agreed to try to meet and cool things down. When someone does that, you have to respect that person for putting out that olive branch and I'm going to make sure we go down there and have a very good but strong and confident conversation.

Every negotiation starts sitting at the table and when someone invites you to their home, said let's sit down at the table, I'm not going to refuse that. Where it all goes from here, a giant question mark. Trump may have backed away from his threat of 50% on steel and aluminum, but for how long? Ford is now expected in Washington Thursday for more talks, though it's unclear

whether he'll meet with Trump himself. But I appreciated his call. I thought it was nice. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. For politicians in Ottawa, it's been another chaotic and confusing day trying to figure out what the U.S. president actually has in store for this country and how to respond. It comes, of course course at a time of transition with Justin Trudeau on his way out as Prime Minister and Mark

Carney getting ready to take over. Tom Perry reports. It is chaos. What Donald Trump is creating is chaos. To NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, US President Donald Trump is not just an agent of chaos. Singh calls Trump an economic arsonist, someone who's shown a willingness to burn down his own country's economy and that of its neighbors. There's talks about a recession happening in the United States solely created by Donald Trump's trade war that he started himself for no reason also completely unprovoked out of nowhere. This is chaos. Canada is confronted with this chaos at a time when it's switching prime ministers and

Preparing for a general election expected to come very soon Despite all that the government says it has a plan a spokesperson for finance minister Dominic LeBlanc today Repeated what's become a familiar talking point, that if the US goes ahead with tariffs against Canadian products, it will respond firmly and proportionately. Mark Carney, who within days will replace Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, posted a similar message on social media, repeating that his government will keep tariffs on American goods until the US shows Canada respect. Conservative leader Pierre Pauliev says the government needs to hit back against any U.S.

tariffs and never falter in its defense of the country. Even Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, whose party's goal is to take Quebec out of Canada, says Trump's threats against this country say a lot about him. That's the proof of the fact that his policies haven't worked. And he doesn't have much time before his own economy, inflation and markets, show him that this has already lasted long enough. And he's got to sit at the table and start a serious negotiation because this is the only way to do things for United States, Mexico, Canada and Quebec. But talks with Trump and the people around him have yielded mixed results. The U.S. president has developed something of a

fixation on Canada with his repeated demands that it become America's 51st state or face economic ruin. When Canada's current state of political flux is over, whoever wins the next federal election will have this to look forward to, the constant possibility of chaos for at least as long as Donald Trump is president. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. And Donald Trump still appears to be forging ahead with the original tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, trade action that has companies and workers in the industry

bracing for cancelled orders and layoffs. Anis Hadari reports. We don't have the luxury of being able to sit on our hands and wait things out or see how things play out. For Rahim Moulu, it doesn't matter exactly when or how tariffs hit. He's the managing director of Conquest Steel in Toronto. The threat of the tariffs alone was enough to interrupt business for us. In January we started receiving out-grade cancellations from U.S. distributors.

Moulu's company makes building and landscaping products out of Canadian steel. They used to sell a lot into the United States. But even before or if tariffs take effect, that's ground to a halt. To be quite honest, I don't think we'll ever get all of that business back. And I think a lot of the damage is already done. Mulu says he's thankful his customers at home, Canadians, are supportive. So while his company isn't thinking about layoffs yet, he is worried about it.

It's definitely not a happy time to be a steelworker. Bill Slater is president of the United Steelworkers Local, representing workers at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie. His union is concerned that if tariffs go higher, those workers would be making steel at a loss, which companies generally don't want to do. You know, unfortunately, it's the blue collar workers now at the bottom that will be looking at both sides of the border to see where their next meal may come from. People like Mr. Trump, their portfolio may get a little bit smaller, but I'm pretty

sure he's going to eat the same things for supper. The union said Algoma Steel laid off just under two dozen people back in February, but on Tuesday, no layoffs so far. Though company CEO Michael Garcia says he knows workers are worried. We're trying to reassure them that if we continue to focus on finding new opportunities for our steel in Canada, that we'll see our way through. It's a very volatile situation. We don't know how long these tariffs will be in place.

Essentially, you're increasing costs in the manufacturing sector, not just in Canada, but also in the U.S. Nathan Janssen is an economist with RBC in Toronto. He says the U.S. economy needs more steel than it makes, so big tariffs hurt them too. That's broadly not a good thing for this North American manufacturing ecosystem. One thing repeated by industry reps and economists. It's difficult for anyone to plan anything when trade policy can change almost daily. Rahim Mollou certainly feels that. Even if miraculously a new deal was reached overnight,

it's not like flipping a light switch. Our American distributors aren't going to be rushing to do business with us because at the end of the day an agreement was already torn up once. Regardless of the next Trump tweet, the damage may be done. Annie Sadari, CBC News, Calgary. damage may be done. Annie Sedari, CBC News, Calgary. Coming up on the podcast, the US restores military aid to Ukraine and the two countries agree to a 30-day ceasefire saying it's now up to Russia. Plus, the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, arrested and taken to the

Hague to face crimes against humanity charges. There is fresh hope tonight. A temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine may be within reach. After a marathon meeting between Ukrainian and US officials, the two countries say Ukraine is ready to stop fighting and start talking if Russia is willing to do the same. Briar Stewart brings us the latest on the potential breakthrough. The talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia were billed as a step towards peace and also a chance

for Kiev and Washington to repair the relationship. And it appears there's been dramatic progress on both fronts. There's no military solution to this war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that Ukraine has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire. So the shooting will stop, the killing will stop, the dying will stop, and the talks can begin about how to end this war permanently in a way that's acceptable and enduring for both sides.

But Russia still has to agree. And a few hours before the talks began, Ukraine sent a message. Dozens of drones targeted Moscow and the surrounding area in the largest attack on the capital since the war began. At least three were killed. We understood there was a war, said a woman staring up at a damaged apartment building in Russia's capital. But she says we didn't properly realize it until now. Russia's foreign ministry said the attacks were clearly planned to

coincide with the peace talks, meetings which appear to have greatly improved the U.S.-Ukraine relations. It was less than two weeks ago that the fractious meeting in the Oval Office between Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump led to Washington suspending military aid and curbing the sharing of intelligence. Those measures have now been lifted. We want a peace. Andrey Urmak is head of Ukraine's presidential office and took part in today's meetings.

And for the people in the world, it's necessary once again to understand, not Ukraine started this war, but Ukraine ready for just and lasting peace. But even if Russia agrees to an interim ceasefire, getting a peace agreement will be exceedingly difficult. It's going to be very hard to build any kind of trust or confidence between Russia and Ukraine. Walter Kemp is a Canadian security expert now based in Austria. He's part of a group that has been strategizing how a deal could work. The challenge is to actually get into the nitty-gritty of what the ceasefire means,

how it works, and also how it's implemented. There's no point in having a ceasefire that's then broken the next day. American officials say the ball is now in Russia's court. Trump says he'll talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week and Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for the Trump administration, is expected to visit Moscow this week as well. If Russia rejects the deal, the U.S. Secretary of State says it will be then clear just what the impediment is to peace. Briar Stewart, CBC News, London.

U.S. federal investigators worry about the chances of more mid-air collisions at Washington's Reagan National Airport. A preliminary report issued today by the National Transportation Safety Board contains urgent safety recommendations to ban certain helicopter operations when two runways are in use at the airport. The findings are part of an investigation into the collision between a passenger jet and an army helicopter in January that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C. Among the recommendations, close the route that helicopter was on. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said this about the current rules regarding the proximity of helicopters and planes.

We've determined that the existing separation distances are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a mid-air collision at DCA. Let me repeat that. They pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety. British police have arrested the captain of a cargo ship in connection with Monday's maritime crash in the North Sea. The Portuguese vessel slammed into an anchored US tanker. The collision sparked a major fire and sent fuel into the waters off England's east coast. Thirty-six crew members were rescued.

One is still missing and believed to be dead. No word yet on what caused the crash. A 59-year-old man is facing possible manslaughter charges. The former president of the Philippines is under arrest tonight and en route to the Hague. Rodrigo Duterte is being accused by the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity. It's over his role in his deadly years-long crackdown on drugs. Cameron McIntosh reports. Taking off from Manila bound for the hang, former Philippine president

Rodrigo Duterte extradited to cheers. What is the law and what is the crime? Just before that Duterte sat defiant for the camera. Challenging the authority of the International Criminal Court, which says it's investigating Duterte for crimes against humanity. of liberty. Duterte, a plain-spoken, authoritarian-leaning firebrand, swept to power as president in 2016, declaring, among other things, a sweeping war on drugs. If you destroy my country, I will kill you. Make no doubt about it. If you destroy the generation of Filipinos coming up to replace us, I will kill you. Simple as that."

Thousands were killed amid allegations of extrajudicial killings. In 2019, with the United Nations, United States, and European Union all expressing concern, Duterte unilaterally withdrew from the International Criminal Court, a move widely seen as an attempt to avoid accountability. Mark Kirsten is an expert in international justice. Suspects of crimes against humanity like Rodrigo Duterte and others can at least sometimes be arrested, and the process of holding them to account for their atrocities can be initiated and I think that's what this stands for. While some cheered his arrest, others rallied to Duterte's defense. He still has plenty of supporters.

Similar splits exist within the Canadian diaspora. There was an active Canadian campaign to see Duterte arrested. Luffi Meriwad is Canadian chair of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines. This is the only small step towards justice, but it's certainly very important. And we want to recognize the efforts, the courage of the victims. Underlying this all? A power struggle. Current President Ferdinand Marcos Junior permitted the victims. Underlying this all a power struggle. Current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. permitted the arrest. He's been feuding with Duterte's

family including Duterte's daughter Sarah, the vice president. She's calling this politically motivated. With Marcos insisting we did this because Interpol asked us to do it. As for the International Criminal Court, it has yet to lay a charge as Uterite makes his way there. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Winnipeg. 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. For years, Arctic sea ice was diminishing faster than in the Antarctic, but the southern continent is reporting near record lows in February. Senior international climate correspondent Susan Ormiston takes us to Deception Island in Antarctica. Seals line up like sentinels along the shoreline of Whalers Bay. Sometimes warning us. He's charging us.

That's okay. We can run faster than they can. We're on Deception Island, an active volcano in Antarctica. What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica. Tom James is the chief scientist on an all-Canadian expedition of 15 scientists supported by the Canadian Navy, a first. It feels momentous. He's studying sea level change.

The Antarctic ice sheet contains enormous amounts of fresh water and as the ice sheet thins and melts in places, calves at faster rates, that's going to affect global sea level change. Antarctica's ancient glaciers are receding and sea ice reached near record lows last month. Both contribute to global sea levels rising at an increasing rate. The fact that we're now seeing a reduction in Antarctic sea ice is just one of many, many indicators that global climate change is happening.

The islands change many times. Big rusted boilers and a frozen graveyard nod to its history as a former whaling station. An old aircraft hangar is a relic of a British base, abandoned when volcanic eruptions covered the island in ash in the 1960s. Today luxury ships bring thousands of tourists a year kayaking in the bay. James is scooping up black gravelly sand from the beach for a colleague in Ottawa who's researching what human imprint we are leaving behind on the continent.

What we're doing is adding to that body of knowledge how are contaminants dispersing globally, how are glaciers retreating and how is that retreat of glaciers and overall climate warming changing the environment and then where it's appropriate drawing parallels with the Canadian Arctic. Departing the island we boat back to HMCS Margaret Brook with new data from an ancient island which will help forecast our climates next century. Susan Ormiston,

CBC News, Deception Island, Antarctica. Greenland is holding a key vote today. People are casting their ballots for a new parliament in the face of ongoing threats from Donald Trump. The US president says he wants control of the Arctic island. Greenland is a self-governing region of Denmark and a strategic military location with rare earth minerals. A break from Denmark is not on this ballot but today's outcome could lead to debates on independence and a possible future vote on the matter. They are a migratory species caught in an increasingly hostile climate. The

Canadian snowbirds flocking south each year to escape the winter. Now with a trade war testing cross-border relations, a new immigration rule is impacting travel plans. Nicole Williams has more on that. It's the uncertainty I think that weighs heavily. Every year for nine years Joanne Ouellette and her husband look to escape the harsh winters of Ottawa. They spend about five months in St. Petersburg, Florida. But that might soon come to an end. We're not sure if we want to come back. At the end of April, we're going to Portugal as a possible place to go for next winter.

That's because of the growing tensions between Canada and the U.S. And with it, unease amongst the hundreds of thousands of other snowbirds that fly south in the winter. The latest, a new executive order by President Donald Trump, which says all visitors going to the U.S. for more than 30 days must register with the Department of Immigration including Canadians. It has absolutely nothing to do with registering people that are out staying their welcome. Rena Hans has been flying south from Toronto for the last 50 years.

She says the new executive order is just another reason to change travel plans for next year. It's just a ridiculous add-on to, a ridiculous add-on of already what's already happening. It's something air passengers have already been doing. Retrieve your most recent I-94 as proof of your legal status in the U.S. But as of April 11th, all long-term visitors over the age of 14,

traveling by car or ferry, need to register by filling out a special form under the so-called alien registration requirement and carry it with them at all times. And if you don't, here's the yucky part, it's punishable up to a $5,000 penalty or six months imprisonment or both. Rosanna Berardi is an immigration lawyer in Buffalo, New York. She says she's among many in the industry that are baffled by the new executive order. I think this is part and parcel with the administration's sour relationship all of a sudden with Canada. Canadians have never been a threat to the United States, notorious lawbreakers.

In fact, snowbirds inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. economy every winter, something Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently shirked off. We continue to set tourism records. 2024 saw more than 142 million visitors come to the state of Florida. This includes 3.3 million visitors from Canada. That's not much of a boycott in my book. But Berardi isn't so confident. I really think it's going to hurt tourism. I think it's going to hurt local economies in the United States. Unlike other travelers, Canadians won't have to be fingerprinted. Even still,

the Canadian Snowbird Association says it's working with U.S. Congress representatives to get an exemption for Canadian travelers. Nicole Williams, CBC News, Ottawa. We close tonight with more on the fallout from the Canada-US trade war. There's been no shortage of political speeches about the impact it's having on diplomacy. You can read all about the economic consequences in financial reports. But the dispute is also taking an emotional toll. And as is often the case, that's something best conveyed in song.

Hello folks, Jim Cuddy here. Due to our troubles with our neighbors in the States, I was inspired to write a little song that's called, We Used To Be the Best of Friends. Eating our lunch on TV trays, watching the sitcoms night and day, Dick Van Dyke when you're sick in bed, he used to be the best of friends. Blue rodeo's Jim Cuddy with his musical take on the situation. What feels like a breakup song, a lament for the loss of a long friendship. Although it does end on a hopeful note. Thank you for joining us.

This has been Your World Tonight for Tuesday, March the 11th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. He used to be the best of friends. Oh no, what went wrong? He used to be the singers in a two-part song. Guess all good things come to an end, but we used to be the best of friends. Yeah, we used to be the best of friends. ¶¶