By Maria Cheng
OTTAWA, July 24 (Reuters) - Canada will mark the opening of a bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, on Friday in a quiet celebration without U.S. officials after a dispute over toll-sharing and new threats of 50% tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump further strained tense relations between the two countries.
Canada cancelled a planned cross-border ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, saying the milestone opening would now be feted only among Canadians before the bridge opens to traffic on Monday.
What normally would have been a celebratory moment between two long-time allies has been overshadowed by fraught trade negotiations and Trump’s threat on Monday to impose more tariffs on Canada, which sends some 70% of its exports to the U.S.
American politicians including Trump have also accused Canada of “poisoning” the U.S. with wildfire smoke from out-of-control blazes raging in northern Ontario.
The $4.7 billion bridge, named after the legendary Canadian Detroit Red Wings hockey player, 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.
Trump threatened to block the project in February, blaming Canadian provinces’ refusal to sell U.S. alcohol, Canadian tariffs on American dairy and the country’s trade talks with China.
There still appear to be disagreements between the two countries over how the bridge revenues will be split and when.
Earlier this month, Trump said he had secured “a much better deal” and significant revenues for the U.S. to allow the bridge’s opening.
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 U.S. for the first 15 years, with no explicit provision that it be compensated first.
Carney addressed the discrepancy at a press briefing on Thursday, saying that a previous deal between Canada and Michigan remains in place and that “there’s no splitting of tolls under that agreement until all of the debt is repaid.”
Neither country has publicly estimated what the revenues will be.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said on Thursday that Trump had “renegotiated an incredible deal for America on the Gordie Howe Bridge,” but did not specify when the U.S. expected to start receiving toll revenues from the bridge.
The new proposed deal appeared to contradict the agreement signed by Canada and the U.S. in 2012, which was referenced by Carney, said Nicolas Lamp, an associate professor and lawyer at Queen’s University’s Institute on Trade Policy.
“The U.S. 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,” Lamp said. “It’s vague enough that each side can save face and claim they won.”
He said the draft agreement is not legally binding and Canada could yet negotiate a better deal.
PLACATING TRUMP
Opposition Conservatives have criticized Carney, saying he “caved” to the U.S., but Lamp disputed that characterization.
Don Abelson, a political science chair in Canada-U.S. relations at McMaster University, said the most worrying issue about the proposed agreement was the lack of a dispute resolution mechanism, which he said “leaves Canada extremely vulnerable if President Trump does something unpredictable.”
Abelson said Carney’s administration likely decided that the biggest win was simply to open the bridge while placating Trump.
“Being reimbursed for the billions of dollars spent on the bridge is critically important, but there’s nothing more important than the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S.,” he said.
(Reporting by Maria Cheng; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Nia Williams)
