Canadian official on tariffs: Why punish us?

Canadian deputy consul general Khawar Nasim has been to Pittsburgh four times in the past eight months, most recently in search of an elusive answer for why the U.S. has chosen to punish its biggest trading partner when the real problem is China.

“We are only trying to get a pulse on the steel and aluminum tariffs,” Mr. Nasim said during an interview Tuesday. “For us, it is a very difficult thing to understand.”

Mr. Nasim is meeting Tuesday and Wednesday with Pittsburgh region metals producers and users, as well as other companies and officials, including United Steelworkers union president Leo Gerard, a native of Canada.

When President Donald Trump refused to forgo imposing 25 percent steel tariffs and 10 percent aluminum tariffs on Canadian-made metals, the

Canadian government responded by placing duties of 10 and 25 percent on about $12.5 billion of U.S. exports.

The penalties take effect July 1. Mr. Nasim said the tariffs will apply to about $601 million of Pennsylvania-made steel products exported to Canada and an additional $756 million of exports of products that Pennsylvania ships to his country.

“This is not a path we chose to go down. This is not our choice. It has been put uponus,” Mr. Nasim said.

He said Canada is considering other measures to protect the jobs of its workers at risk because of the trade dispute. The initiatives include quotas on steel and aluminum imports to prevent exports that are diverted from the U.S. market because of Mr. Trump’s tariffs from ending up jeopardizing Canada’s steel and aluminum jobs, Mr. Nasim said.

He said the U.S. tariffs “impact just about the cost of everything” that Canadians buy.

Construction industry officials have told him it is very difficult to bid longterm projects because the price of steel has jumped 5 to 7 percent monthly.

“In Canada, tariffs and NAFTA are front page news nearly every day,” he said. The North American Free Trade Agreement is in the process of being renegotiated.

Mr. Trump imposed the tariffs on national security grounds, saying imports were ravaging domestic steel and aluminum producers and jeopardizing their ability to supply the defense industry. His and the steel industry’s biggest beef is with China, by far the world’s largest steel producer. Government and industry officials blame China for much of the 700-million metric ton global glut of steel making capacity.

Critics say the tariffs punish allies like Canada — as wellas Mexico and the European Union — but don’t address China’s culpability. China accounted for about 2 percent of U.S. steel imports last year while Canada accounted for 17 percent, according to U.S. Department ofCommerce figures.

During his meetings in Pennsylvania, Mr. Nasim said he emphasizes the positive aspects of the integrated trade relationships that Canadian and U.S. businesses have.

He tells them that Canada is the United States’ largest export market, that 346,600 Pennsylvania jobs depend on trade and investment with Canada and that Pennsylvania exports nearly $12 billion annually in goods andservices to Canada.

“Ours is the greatest trading relationship in the world. We’re not going to put up our hands in anger and walk away from it,” he said. “We don’t want this to have a lasting impact.”