Opening delayed for US-Canada bridge that Trump threatened to close

MONTREAL – The opening of a new bridge connecting Canada and the US, which President Donald Trump had criticised, has been delayed so the two countries can resolve “outstanding issues”, an official said on June 11.

The bridge authority’s interim CEO, Chuck Andary, said: “Canada and the United States have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.

“As we work towards an opening date, we are taking a collaborative approach.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on June 9 that the US$4.7 billion (S$6 billion) Gordie Howe Bridge that links the Canadian province of Ontario with the US state of Michigan would open this week.

In February, Trump threatened to block the bridge, insisting that the US had been treated unfairly in its construction and that it should be “at least half” US-owned.

According to a factsheet issued by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the bridge was financed entirely by Canada and will be jointly owned by the governments of Canada and the state of Michigan.

Carney said that the bridge’s opening marked “positive news” and “a symbol, but also a fact of cooperation between our countries”.

The nature of Trump’s anger about the bridge is not entirely clear, but he first raised it shortly after Carney’s widely praised January speech at the World Economic Forum, an address broadly seen as a denunciation of Trump.

Carney had also just sealed a preliminary trade deal with China, prompting massive new tariff threats from Washington. AFP