{"id":830226,"date":"2026-07-28T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/830226\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T00:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:00:22","slug":"canadas-awkward-tariff-summer-gordie-howe-bridge-opens-for-traffic-a-week-after-michigan-and-white-house-officials-got-uninvited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/830226\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s awkward tariff summer: Gordie Howe Bridge opens for traffic a week after Michigan and White House officials got uninvited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traffic is set to start flowing Monday across a\u00a0new bridge<\/a>\u00a0over the Detroit River that will serve as a critical route for trade, jobs and tourism between Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Last week, Canada celebrated the Gordie Howe International Bridge with a\u00a0ribbon-cutting ceremony<\/a>\u00a0in Windsor, Ontario, to mark the completion of the multibillion-dollar, multiyear project.<\/p>\n

U.S. and Michigan representatives were uninvited from\u00a0Friday\u2019s gathering<\/a>\u00a0after President Donald Trump suddenly announced\u00a050% tariffs on Canadian goods<\/a>\u00a0entering America.<\/p>\n

The bridge is named for Howe, a Canadian icon known as\u00a0\u201cMr. Hockey\u201d<\/a>\u00a0who wore No. 9 while playing on the other side of the Detroit River for the NHL\u2019s Detroit Red Wings. He died in 2016.<\/p>\n

More than 70% of\u00a0Canada\u2019s exports<\/a>\u00a0go to the U.S., making America its largest trade partner, and Detroit is the No. 1 port for truck traffic on the U.S.-Canada border,\u00a0according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.<\/a><\/p>\n

For nearly a century, the\u00a0privately-owned Ambassador Bridge<\/a>\u00a0has been the only route for large commercial trucks moving between the U.S. and Canada at Detroit. Businesses say the new six-lane span will be faster and less expensive.<\/p>\n

The span is 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and rises 151 feet (46 meters) above the river at its highest point. Pedestrians and bicyclists carrying proper identification will be able to cross it for free in a few weeks.<\/p>\n

Construction on the new bridge began in 2018 but took years, partly because of a global slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Canada paid to build the bridge at an estimated cost of $6.4 billion. A recent agreement says Canada will share some toll revenue with the U.S. government for 15 years.<\/p>\n

Trump praised his administration for that deal in a social media post while the Ontario event was in progress. \u201cWe changed the terms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Michigan will also get a share, but not until Canada\u2019s costs are recovered, likely decades from now.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to\u00a0Fortune Gulf Brief. Every Tuesday, this new newsletter delivers clear-eyed, authoritative intelligence on the deals, decisions, policies, and power shifts shaping one of the world\u2019s most consequential regions, written for the people who need to act on it. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Traffic is set to start flowing Monday across a\u00a0new bridge\u00a0over the Detroit River that will serve as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,4992],"class_list":["post-830226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-tariffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}