U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) to reinstate a 25 per cent tariff on steel and increase the tariff on aluminum from 10 to 25 per cent, effective March 12.
According to the Canadian Steel Producers Association, 40 per cent of Canada’s steel imports comes from the United States; and per Global Affairs Canada, approximately 84 per cent of Canada’s primary aluminum production is exported to the U.S.
Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said, “When President Trump implemented tariffs on Canadian steel in 2018, we saw massive disruptions and harm on both sides of the border, hurting both America and Canada. The Canada – US economy is so highly integrated; with $20B in trade of steel between our two countries. 40% of Canada’s steel imports comes from the United States. This at a time when Canada has worked tremendously hard to align our trade policy with the United States to protect both markets from unfair trade that threaten jobs and communities. For example, Canada implemented its own Section 53 tariffs on Chinese steel imports and a monitoring system of all imports to ensure it can identify the country of melt and pour. While the target of Canadian steel and aluminum is completely baseless and unwarranted, we must retaliate immediately. We are urgently demanding that the Government of Canada act again with resolve and purpose to combat this threat and ensure any measure taken against our sector is met with retaliatory measures and action to offset the devastating impacts tariffs would have on our sector and our workers.”
The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction proposes the Canadian Government take the following actions to protect the industry:
- Work with industry to ensure countries accused of dumping practices can no longer undercut the Canadian industry.
- Implement environmental standards for imported steel that meet or exceed the requirements placed on Canadian steel producers and fabricators.
- Ensure public projects require domestically procured products.
- Introduce domestic procurement requirements for publicly funded construction projects that leverage federal funding.
- Encourage private sector projects to use Canadian steel and steel fabricated products.
- Invest in new public construction and infrastructure products.
- Act promptly to identify markets with the greatest needs and establish agreements before other steel-producing countries fill the void.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for more details.
