Canada continues to fight American steel tariffs, says Freeland
Foreign affairs minister says new trade agreement with U.S. is ‘a good deal for Canada’
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says she will continue to fight American tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium exports, which she insists are unjustified and illegal.
Freeland was in Port Colborne Thursday afternoon to tour a factory and meet local business leaders and Liberal supporters.
After her tour of JTL Integrated Machine Ltd. — an industrial metal fabrication supplier — Freeland continued her pushback on American trade practices even has she proclaimed the new Canada-U.S-Mexico trade deal “not just any deal, but a good deal for Canada.”
Canada and the U.S. reached a provisional deal on trade after several rounds of negotiations this year. The talks were triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump, who proclaimed the previous agreement, NAFTA, one of the worst trade deals in history.
Overshadowing those talks were tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium exports — and retaliatory Canadian tariffs on American imports — imposed by Trump.
On Thursday Freeland repeated the Canadian government’s position that Trump’s rationale for the tariffs is “absurd,” because the clause used by the White House to impose the tariffs requires a threat to American national security.
“The argument being used is that somehow Canadian aluminium and steel somehow poses a national security threat to the United States. We think that is patently absurd,” Freeland said.
“Look around here, see all the work all these guys are doing for U.S. companies. We are not a strategic threat to the United States, we are a strategic partner.”
Freeland said Canada continues to challenge the tariffs and noted the U.S. International Trade Commission began hearings Thursday to look at the economic impact of the tariffs on trade. She said American business leaders are saying the tariffs are a net negative for American companies.
The same is true in Canada where businesses, such as ASW Steel in Welland, have been
forced to reduce in the number of shifts for workers.
Niagara Centre Liberal MP Vance Badawey, who joined Freeland on her tour, said the government is providing relief to ASW and other steel companies in the form of duty delays and other measures. Ultimately, he said, the Canadian government expects its challenges to be successful.
On Thursday the CBC reported that Canada was willing to accept the trade deal while the tariffs remain in place as a way of preventing the Americans from taking punitive action against the Canadian automotive industry.
The tentative deal protects Canadian automakers from new American tariffs.
However, Freeland said the steel tariffs and the trade deal are not connected, and Canada will continue its challenges. She said the best outcome for both countries would be the end of both Canadian and American tariffs.
Although Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador have agreed to sign the deal before Dec. 1, it still must be ratified by the governments of all three countries. Some senior Democrats in the U.S. have indicated that support for the deal won’t be a mere formality.
Freeland would not comment on the possible impact on ratification of Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives in the recent American mid-term elections, or if the Canadian government would push the newly elected House for concessions.
Freeland said the ratification process south of the 49th is a purely American matter. She said her American counterparts would not appreciate her opining on internal American politics any more than Ottawa would if Washington began to tell the Canadian government how to vote.