{"id":8075,"date":"2026-07-24T21:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/canada-marks-gordie-howe-bridge-opening-without-us-after-trade-war-deepens\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:36:06","slug":"canada-marks-gordie-howe-bridge-opening-without-us-after-trade-war-deepens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/canada-marks-gordie-howe-bridge-opening-without-us-after-trade-war-deepens\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada marks Gordie Howe bridge opening without US after trade war deepens"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Canada marked the opening of a bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan in a quiet celebration without United States officials after a dispute over toll-sharing and new threats of 50 percent tariffs from US President Donald Trump further strained tense relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n<p>Canada cancelled a planned cross-border ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge and the milestone opening on Friday was feted only among Canadians before <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/9\/canada-confirms-opening-of-gordie-howe-bridge-despite-trumps-threats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the bridge opens to traffic on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/7\/24\/as-oil-soars-experts-watch-red-sea-tankers-for-clarity-on-houthi-blockade\">As oil soars, experts watch Red Sea tankers for clarity on Houthi blockade<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/24\/is-the-us-saudi-nuclear-deal-on-or-in-limbo\">Is the US-Saudi nuclear deal on, or in limbo?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/24\/what-to-know-about-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner-take-two\">What to know about the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, take two<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/24\/icc-prosecutor-khan-removed-over-sexual-misconduct-allegations-sources\">ICC prosecutor Khan removed over \u2018politicised\u2019 sex abuse claims: Sources<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Amid tables of fruit cups, pastries and children playing hockey \u2014 a tribute to the legendary Canadian Detroit Red Wings hockey player after whom the bridge is named \u2014 Canadian officials gathered to observe the bridge\u2019s opening with invited guests, including members of Howe\u2019s family. Attendees were encouraged to wear the country\u2019s national colours of red and white \u201cto show Canadian pride\u201d and were prevented from crossing to the US side of the bridge.<\/p>\n<p>Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada\u2019s relationship with the US had been made more challenging by Trump\u2019s tariffs, but the bridge was \u201can example of what we can achieve when our two great countries work together\u201d. Wearing a red Team Canada hockey jersey with Howe\u2019s number 9, Ford said Ontario would not back down from the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanadians and Americans are better off when we work together instead of standing apart,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n<p>What normally would have been a celebratory moment between two long-time allies has been overshadowed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/21\/trumps-new-50-percent-canada-tariffs-what-products-are-affected-and-why\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fraught trade negotiations<\/a> and Trump\u2019s threat on Monday to impose more tariffs on Canada, which sends some 70 percent of its exports to the US, including for smoke from Canadian wildfires that had spread to parts of the US<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"competing-bridges\">Competing bridges<\/h2>\n<p>The $4.7bn bridge was paid for by Canada and had been scheduled to open in June after construction began in 2018. It is meant to be a faster alternative to the existing Ambassador Bridge across the Detroit River.<\/p>\n<p>Trump <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/2\/10\/trump-threatens-to-block-opening-of-detroit-canada-bridge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">threatened to block the project<\/a> in February, blaming Canadian provinces\u2019 refusal to sell US alcohol, Canadian tariffs on American dairy products and the country\u2019s trade talks with China.<\/p>\n<p>Weeks before, in January, Matthew Moroun, a Detroit-based trucking magnate whose family has operated the Ambassador Bridge for decades, made a $1m donation to a Trump-aligned political action committee (PAC), according to The New York Times, which cited campaign finance records. Moroun has long opposed the new bridge as it would cut into traffic, and revenue, on the Ambassador Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>The White House and the PAC have previously denied any connection between the donation and Trump\u2019s threats to block the new bridge.<\/p>\n<p>There still appear to be disagreements between the two countries over how the bridge revenues will be split and when. The Canadian government said 274 million Canadian dollars ($194m) in trade per day moves between Windsor and Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said it was \u201cfine\u201d that Canada \u201cdisinvited\u201d the US to the bridge\u2019s opening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe original Deal on the Bridge, which was terribly negotiated by a previous Administration, no longer stands,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. \u201cWe changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50% of the Profit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country would only share toll revenues after being paid back, but according to a draft agreement released on Wednesday, Canada will split net bridge and crossing-related revenues with the US for the first 15 years, with no explicit provision that it be compensated first.<\/p>\n<p>Carney addressed the discrepancy at a media briefing on Thursday, saying a previous deal between Canada and Michigan remains in place and \u201cthere\u2019s no splitting of tolls under that agreement until all of the debt is repaid\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Neither country has publicly estimated what the revenues will be.<\/p>\n<p>The new proposed deal appeared to contradict the agreement signed by Canada and the US in 2012, which was referenced by Carney, said Nicolas Lamp, an associate professor and lawyer at Queen\u2019s University\u2019s Institute on Trade Policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe US can point to the new agreement that says they will get half of the net revenue, while Canada can say that contradicts the original agreement,\u201d Lamp said. \u201cIt\u2019s vague enough that each side can save face and claim they won.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don Abelson, a political science chair in Canada-US relations at McMaster University, said the biggest win was simply to open the bridge while placating Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing reimbursed for the billions of dollars spent on the bridge is critically important, but there\u2019s nothing more important than the trade relationship between Canada and the US,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canada marked the opening of a bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan in a quiet celebration without United States officials after a dispute over toll-sharing and new threats of 50 percent tariffs from US President Donald Trump further strained tense relations between the two countries. Canada cancelled a planned cross-border ribbon-cutting ceremony for the &#8230; <a title=\"Canada marks Gordie Howe bridge opening without US after trade war deepens\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/canada-marks-gordie-howe-bridge-opening-without-us-after-trade-war-deepens\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Canada marks Gordie Howe bridge opening without US after trade war deepens\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}