Posted on 12 Aug 2024
Steel and aluminium advocacy associations urge the Canadian government to take preemptive action against Chinese imports entering Canada, Kallanish learns.
Catherine Cobden, chief executive officer of the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA), and Jean Simard, president of the Aluminium Association of Canada, warn in a press conference that Chinese steel is threatening the viability of their industries.
Both Cobden and Simard support higher tariffs aligned with measures taken by the US and Mexico, to protect the Canadian domestic markets.
In May, US President Joe Biden confirmed that the US would impose a 25% tariff rate on Chinese-origin steel and aluminium products under Section 301 (see Kallanish 14 May). In July, Mexico agreed that it would increase scrutiny on melt-and-pour information for steel entering the country, cracking down on cheap imports making their way to the US market (see Kallanish 12 July).
“We can't emphasise enough how critical a moment in time this is to stand in lockstep with our biggest trading partner, the United States, and frankly Mexico as our CUSMA partner,” Cobden states, using Canada's abbreviation for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. The five-year-old regoinal trade pact, which replaced Nafta, is known elsewhere as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
In an 8 August website update, CSPA expresses urgency of setting a prohibitive tariff amount to deter Chinese excesses from impacting Canada.
“Our industries call on the government of Canada to act swiftly and take a holistic approach by including steel, aluminium and EVs in a single tariff package fully aligned with our largest trading partner. Relying solely on the use of traditional trade remedy actions or lengthy investigations would leave Canada far behind its trading partners, and highly vulnerable,” states the steel association.
Simard articulates similar concerns on behalf of the aluminium industry.
“The fencing-out of Chinese excess capacity by Mexico and the US leaves us, Canada, the sole tariff-free point of entry in the CUSMA trading space,” Simard states.
In a joint media release on 8 August, the industry groups state: “Our hope is that Canada recognises the strategic importance of the steel and aluminium sectors and the workers and families our industries support. Taking this action would protect Canada from the real threat of unfair trade to our economic prosperity and to our trading relationships in North America.”
Source:Kallanish
