Lighthizer keeps Canada in the dark
Donald Trump’s trade ambassador continued to keep Canada’s steel and aluminum industry in suspense Thursday as trade experts, labour bosses and business leaders considered how best to retaliate if the White House decides to impose fresh tariffs on metals from north of the border.
In a rare public appearance, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — speaking to members of the London-based Chatham House think tank —offered no hint of whether or when the U.S. intends to reprise its tariff offensive against Canada in response to an alleged “surge” in exports of Canadian-made aluminum.
He did, however, provide some insight into why Section 232 tariffs, so named for the portion of U.S. law that permits them on the basis of a perceived threat to national security, have proven such a go-to lever for the Trump White House.
“Unquestionably, we did have a crisis,” Lighthizer said of the decision in 2018 to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from around the world. He suggested the move was aimed primarily at China — a longtime trade foe that has been in American sights for using its outsized production capacity to depress prices and undermine U.S. producers.
He described himself as part of an administration determined to move the United States beyond its post-war mission to be a charitable principal architect of the new industrial order, a role in which he believes the country has lingered too long at the expense of American jobs and prosperity.
Imposing tariffs was “essential” in 2018, “particularly looking back at where we would be if we hadn’t done something on it,” Lighthizer said. “And when you take an action like that, you almost have to take it on a global basis.”
Tariffs are a blunt instrument that can also cause domestic costs to rise, he acknowledged — but drastic action, exacting a toll that Americans were willing to pay, was necessary to bring the U.S. back from an “extreme free-trade position” that came at the expense of American manufacturing jobs.
“There’s a balance there, and the balance had swung way too far into the level of save a penny here, save a penny there, moving half your manufacturing to China and the other half to Vietnam,” Lighthizer said.