By Maria Cheng

OTTAWA, July 24 (Reuters) – Canada marked 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 canceled a planned cross-border ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge and the milestone opening was feted only among ‌Canadians before the bridge opens to traffic on Monday.

Amid tables of fruit cups, pastries, and children playing hockey — a tribute to the legendary Canadian Detroit Red Wings hockey player after whom the bridge is named — ​Canadian officials gathered to observe the bridge’s opening with invited guests, including members of Howe’s family. Attendees were encouraged to wear the country’s national colors of red and white “to show Canadian pride” and were prevented from crossing to the U.S. side of the bridge.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada’s relationship with the U.S. had been made more challenging by Trump’s tariffs, but the bridge was “an example of what we can achieve when our two great countries work together.” Wearing a red Team Canada hockey jersey with Howe’s number 9, ‌Ford said Ontario would not back down from the United ⁠States.

“Canadians and Americans are better off when we work together instead of standing apart,” Ford said.

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 United States.

The $4.7 billion 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.

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. The Canadian government said C$274 million ($194 million) in trade per day moves between Windsor and Detroit.

Trump said it was “fine” that Canada “disinvited” the U.S. to the bridge’s opening.

“The original Deal on the Bridge, which was terribly negotiated by a previous Administration, no longer stands,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “We changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50% of the Profit.”

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 a previous deal between Canada and Michigan remains in ​place and “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.

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.”

Don Abelson, a political science ​chair in Canada-U.S. relations at McMaster University, said 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.

($1 = 1.4093 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Maria Cheng; additional reporting ​by Carlos Osorio in Windsor, Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Nia Williams and Chris Reese)