Trump slaps tariffs on Canadian aluminum

Canada ‘ taking advantage of us, as usual’

• Canada’s aluminum industry is calling for “reasonable” but “painful” retaliatory tariffs on U. S. imports after President Donald Trump said Thursday he is restoring an import tax on raw aluminum from Canada later this month.

During a speech at a Whirlpool manufacturing plant in the battleground state of Ohio, Trump accused Canada of breaking a promise not to flood the U. S. market with the Canadian metal.

“Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual,” Trump said.

“The aluminum business was being decimated by Canada, very unfair to our jobs and our great aluminum workers.”

Trump said on the advice of U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer he signed a proclamation earlier in the day to put a 10 per cent tariff back on raw aluminum from Canada as of Aug. 16.

Jean Simard, president of the Aluminium Association of Canada, said the decision will destabilize Canada’s industry and supply chains in an already shaky economy that is struggling under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the wrong thing for the wrong reason at the wrong time for the wrong people,” he said.

Canada is not flooding the U. S, market, he said, and the only thing the tariffs will do is cause U. S. consumers to pay more for anything containing aluminum.

He said Canada needs “to hit back, dollar for dollar” at the very least on U. S. products containing aluminum. He said that could also extend beyond aluminum.

“I think we’re going to ponder the possibilities in the coming weeks and see what is on the one hand reasonable and on the other hand can be painful,” he said.

The U. S. previously imposed the same tariff between June 1, 2018 and May 17, 2019, along with a 25 per cent import tariff on Canadian steel. Canada retaliated with $ 16.6 billion in tariffs on U. S. products, including ketchup, ballpoint pens, licorice, orange juice, whisky and toilet paper. At the time, Canada focused on products that would cause pain in electoral districts held by key Republicans, something that could be done again.

Calls for retaliation were echoed by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the United Steelworkers union.

Trump said his administration agreed to lift the original tariffs in 2019 because Canada promised it would not “flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminum jobs, which is exactly what they did.”

The spectre of the tariffs being reapplied has hung over Canada’s aluminum industry for more than a month.

Canada’s aluminum industry is heavily reliant on exports to the U.S., which accounts for about 90 per cent Canada’s aluminum exports.