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U.S. slaps 10% tariff on aluminum imports from Canada
The U.S. slapped import tariffs on Canadian aluminum in 2018 and later removed them. (Stu Mills/CBC)
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has implemented a tariff of 10 per cent on aluminum imported from Canada.
Trump made the announcement of an executive order imposing the tariffs on Thursday in a campaign speech at a Whirlpool factory in Ohio.
The United States slapped import tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in 2018 citing national security concerns, before removing them last year as part of a broad free trade deal now in force.
"I have determined that the measures agreed upon with Canada are not providing an effective alternative means to address the threatened impairment to our national security from imports of aluminum from Canada," the presidential proclamation reads. "Thus, I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to re-impose the 10 per cent ad valorem tariff ... on imports of non-alloyed unwrought aluminum articles from Canada."
The tariff will be in effect as of Aug. 16.
This isn't the first time that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have clashed on metal tariffs. (Patrick Doyle/Reuters, Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press)
'A step in the wrong direction'
Business groups largely oppose the plan, since it will raise costs of the metal for U.S. manufacturers, who will have little option but to pay the tariff and import the metal anyway because the U.S. does not produce enough of the metal to satisfy domestic demand.
Canada supplied about three-quarters of all the aluminum imported into the U.S. between January and May of 2020, said the executive order implementing the tariff on "non-alloyed unwrought aluminum."
"The administration's move to reimpose tariffs on aluminum from Canada is a step in the wrong direction," said Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs for business lobby group U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"These tariffs will raise costs for American manufacturers, are opposed by most U.S. aluminum producers and will draw retaliation against U.S. exports."
Shades of NAFTA
Chris Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, D.C., says aluminum being used as a cudgel in a trade dispute is reminiscent of the role softwood lumber played in the lead up to the first Canada-U.S. free trade deal a generation ago.
Disputes over softwood lumber threatened to derail that deal at the time, which is why both sides agreed to carve out the issue from a broader agreement, a decision which caused the issue to fester for years since it wasn't included in the agreed-upon rules.
"We temporarily resolve the dispute, we got our big trade deal [but] we then went back to the trade war," Sands said in an interview with CBC News.
Similarly here, the aluminum tariffs were excluded from the comprehensive trade deal that the U.S. and Canada and Mexico agreed to in 2019. "As soon as Canada's parliament, the U.S. Congress and the Mexican Congress approved the [USMCA] deal he's gone back to the trade war that he interrupted in order to get a deal."
With files from the CBC's Meegan Read
The U.S. slapped import tariffs on Canadian aluminum in 2018 and later removed them. (Stu Mills/CBC)
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has implemented a tariff of 10 per cent on aluminum imported from Canada.
Trump made the announcement of an executive order imposing the tariffs on Thursday in a campaign speech at a Whirlpool factory in Ohio.
The United States slapped import tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in 2018 citing national security concerns, before removing them last year as part of a broad free trade deal now in force.
"I have determined that the measures agreed upon with Canada are not providing an effective alternative means to address the threatened impairment to our national security from imports of aluminum from Canada," the presidential proclamation reads. "Thus, I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to re-impose the 10 per cent ad valorem tariff ... on imports of non-alloyed unwrought aluminum articles from Canada."
The tariff will be in effect as of Aug. 16.
This isn't the first time that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have clashed on metal tariffs. (Patrick Doyle/Reuters, Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press)
'A step in the wrong direction'
Business groups largely oppose the plan, since it will raise costs of the metal for U.S. manufacturers, who will have little option but to pay the tariff and import the metal anyway because the U.S. does not produce enough of the metal to satisfy domestic demand.
Canada supplied about three-quarters of all the aluminum imported into the U.S. between January and May of 2020, said the executive order implementing the tariff on "non-alloyed unwrought aluminum."
"The administration's move to reimpose tariffs on aluminum from Canada is a step in the wrong direction," said Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs for business lobby group U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"These tariffs will raise costs for American manufacturers, are opposed by most U.S. aluminum producers and will draw retaliation against U.S. exports."
Shades of NAFTA
Chris Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, D.C., says aluminum being used as a cudgel in a trade dispute is reminiscent of the role softwood lumber played in the lead up to the first Canada-U.S. free trade deal a generation ago.
Disputes over softwood lumber threatened to derail that deal at the time, which is why both sides agreed to carve out the issue from a broader agreement, a decision which caused the issue to fester for years since it wasn't included in the agreed-upon rules.
"We temporarily resolve the dispute, we got our big trade deal [but] we then went back to the trade war," Sands said in an interview with CBC News.
Similarly here, the aluminum tariffs were excluded from the comprehensive trade deal that the U.S. and Canada and Mexico agreed to in 2019. "As soon as Canada's parliament, the U.S. Congress and the Mexican Congress approved the [USMCA] deal he's gone back to the trade war that he interrupted in order to get a deal."
With files from the CBC's Meegan Read
