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President Donald Trump says he intends to block a new bridge connecting the United States and Canada that aims to ease congestion at the busiest trade corridor between the two nations.
One person who would enthusiastically support Trump’s threat is a Detroit billionaire who owns an almost century-old bridge nearby and has long tried to scuttle the new crossing, which would connect Detroit to Windsor, Ontario.
The billionaire, Matthew Moroun, is a trucking industry scion in Detroit whose family for decades has mounted legal challenges to block or delay the project — one even reaching Canada’s Supreme Court — and aggressively lobbied governments on both sides of the border.
Now Trump has threatened to stop the bridge from opening, saying in a rambling social media post that he wants to punish Canada for exploiting the United States and for reviving its trade relationship with the Chinese government, among other perceived transgressions.
The crossing, called the Gordie Howe International Bridge, is expected to open sometime this year.
What does this mean for trade talks?
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had a call with Trump on Tuesday morning and explained that Canada paid for the bridge, though it will share ownership with Michigan.
Canada is Michigan’s largest export market.
“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries,” Carney told reporters. “I look forward to it opening.”
Carney said that Trump asked Pete Hoekstra, who is the U.S. ambassador to Canada and is from Michigan, to “play a role in smoothing the conversation” about the bridge. (On Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, repeated Trump’s insistence that the United States should own half of the bridge.)
The discussion turned to issues that Canada will raise during future negotiations over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, according to Carney.
The three countries will review the trade agreement this year amid varying signals from the Trump administration about its commitment to its continuation. The current agreement has meant that most Canadian exports have been shielded from tariffs introduced by Trump.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, disputed one of Trump’s claims about the bridge — that no American steel was used to build it — saying in an interview that U.S. steel made up 25% of the construction.
Trump supported the project during his first term.
“All of a sudden, he’s changed his tune,” Ford said. “We have to get this open. If not, it’s going to hurt the American workers.”
Why did Canada build a second bridge?
The catalyst for the new bridge was the closing of the border after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The enormous, miles-long traffic jams of trucks along roads in Ontario underscored the vulnerability created by relying on a single bridge for commercial traffic at North America’s busiest land crossing.
There is a tunnel for vehicles linking Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, but tractor-trailers are too tall to fit.
The Ambassador Bridge, which opened in 1929, was also showing its age. Chunks of it regularly fell off, causing lane reductions on the bridge and street closings below in Windsor.
An expressway that runs across southern Ontario ends on the outskirts of Windsor, forcing trucks to make a slow journey to the bridge on a congested local road.
Investors and both governments floated several proposals, including a plan by the Moroun family to build a second crossing alongside the four-lane Ambassador Bridge.
Who is the Moroun family?
Manuel Moroun purchased the Ambassador Bridge in 1979 after building a fortune largely through the expansion of his father’s trucking company. Matthew Moroun, Moroun’s son, gradually took over as head of the family before Manuel Moroun’s death in 2020.
Manuel Moroun was known for being exceptionally litigious even with other members of his family. He also had a reputation for disregarding government and court orders.
The Moroun family bought properties on both sides of the border near its bridge and was known for leaving the buildings in those areas to decay, leading to disputes with both cities. The family did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A former railway station in Detroit that became a widely known symbol of the city’s decay was among the family’s holdings. It was sold to the Ford Motor Co. in 2018 and was restored.
Who paid for the new bridge?
After finding no interest among U.S. lawmakers, the Canadian government has entirely financed the bridge’s construction and even paid for the highway interchange on the American side. The United States paid for the bridge’s border inspection facility.
The project cost 6.4 billion Canadian dollars ($4.7 billion). The province of Ontario also completed a $1 billion highway expansion that opened a decade ago.
By alleviating traffic on streets in Windsor, the bridge, which has been built roughly six years behind schedule, will benefit both countries, said Dennis Darby, the CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry group.
“Fewer bottlenecks and fewer surprises mean more resilient, competitive supply chains,” Darby said in a statement.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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The New York Times News Service Syndicate
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