Forced to impose reciprocal tariffs: Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs on $29.8-billion worth of U.S. steel, other goods

Canada swiftly hit back at the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs on all global aluminum and steel imports by imposing counterlevies on $29.8-billion worth of U.S. goods while urging Washington to resume talks to end the trade war.

 

“These tariffs are completely unjustified, unfair and unreasonable,” Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc told a news conference on Wednesday, warning U.S. protectionist measures will hurt American and Canadian consumers.

 

Canadian dollar-for-dollar countertariffs will take effect at midnight Thursday, Mr. LeBlanc said in laying out Ottawa’s response.

 

“These includes steel products worth $12.6-billion and aluminum products worth $3-billion as well as additional imported goods worth $14.2-billion for a total of $29.8-billion,” he said. The list of additional products includes computers, sports equipment and cast iron products.

 

The tariffs are on top of the levies Canada placed on $30-billion of U.S. imports on March 4. Canada previously threatened to hit the U.S. with another $125-billion of retaliatory tariffs if U.S. President Donald Trump slaps 25-per-cent tariffs on most Canadian imports on April 2.

The $29.8-billion in new levies on aluminum and steel are part of the total $155-billion in Canadian tariffs.

 

Mr. LeBlanc said the government has measures in place, including work-sharing and flexible Employment Insurance, to help workers affected by the punitive U.S. tariffs.
Trump’s U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum in effect as of midnight

 

Mr. Trump followed through on a threat at midnight Wednesday to slap 25-per-cent tariffs on aluminum and steel from all countries including Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Australia and Europe. The 27-nation European block joined Canada with retaliatory tariffs of US$28-billion on American goods.

 

Mr. LeBlanc was joined at the news conference by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Ms. Joly appealed to Americans to put pressure on Mr. Trump to rethink his trade war.

 

“Send a message to the White House,” she said. “Working together Canada and the U.S. have built a strong economy and working together we can bring down inflation and bring stability to the markets.”

 

Mr. Champagne said Canada has been forced to impose reciprocal tariffs to protect Canadian workers and industries but warned the U.S. levies will lead to higher prices for American consumers and put thousands of American jobs at risk.

 

“Let’s stop with this tariff nonsense. Let’s work together to make North American more competitive,” he said.

 

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the tariffs put in place Wednesday will stay in effect until there is a strong U.S. aluminum and steel industry.

 

Mr. Champagne will join Mr. LeBlanc and Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Thursday in Washington for talks with Mr. Lutnick, aimed at lifting the steel and aluminum tariffs and heading off 25-per-cent across-the-board levies on most Canadian imports April 2, with a lower 10-per-cent tariff on energy and critical minerals.

 

“The conversation tomorrow will be about what can we do to deal with this completely unjustified application of tariffs to steel and aluminum from Canada,” Mr. LeBlanc said. “The conversation will be around lowering the temperature and focusing on the process that President Trump set up where Secretary Lutnick has up to April 2 to determine a series of global tariff decisions.”

 

Mr. Champagne said he’ll bluntly tell Mr. Lutnick that global stock markets have sent a strong message that U.S. tariffs cause economic dislocation, with $4-trillion lost in the U.S. stock market in the past week. U.S. factories also risk closing because of integrated supply chains, he said.

 

“The mission in Washington is to say the markets are speaking. Industries are speaking. Let’s get back to the table where we can talk” he said.

 

Ms. Joly said she will also be holding talks about the tariffs with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio when she hosts a G7 foreign ministers meeting at Charlevoix, Que., on Thursday and Friday in advance of a leaders’ summit in Alberta in June.

 

Ms. Joly said she’ll once again tell Mr. Rubio that Canadians are fed up with Mr. Trump’s call for the annexation of Canada. “Everything that has to do with the 51st state rhetoric is unacceptable,” she said.

 

Liberal Leader and prime minister-designate Mark Carney emerged Wednesday morning from the offices of steel producer ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton, wearing an orange safety jacket, surrounded by security. When asked about a lack of federal leadership at the moment, he replied, “there’s lots of federal leadership,” as he entered a black SUV and was driven away.

 

Mr. Ford met with Mr. Carney on Wednesday morning for breakfast in Etobicoke, Ont., later saying on social media that “we agreed on the need to stand firm and strong in the face of President Trump’s threats, including additional retaliatory tariffs.”

 

“Canada won’t relent until the threat of tariffs is gone for good,” Mr. Ford said on X.

 

The Premier said he looks forward to sitting down with Mr. Lutnick and members of the Trump administration.

 

Mr. Ford on Monday announced a 25-per-cent surcharge on electricity exports to three U.S. states, but suspended it Tuesday after a call with the Commerce Secretary. The Premier said Mr. Lutnick “extended an olive branch” to start a conversation about the future of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

 

“Over the coming weeks and months, I’m going to work with Secretary Lutnick, our federal partners and every premier in good faith toward a free trade deal that’s fair for both countries,” Mr. Ford wrote Wednesday.

 

Mr. Trump had briefly pledged Tuesday morning to double the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada to 50 per cent in a chaotic day of threats and last-minute deal-making, but the President changed course after Mr. Ford suspended the surcharge on electricity exports, in a temporary compromise brokered with Mr. Lutnick.

The new steel and aluminum tariffs mark the second time in a decade that Mr. Trump has slapped punishing levies on Canadian metals. Stock markets have retreated on those plans, with share price losses on Monday and Tuesday that accompanied rising fears voiced by economists that a recession may loom.

Canadian unions call Trump out for tariff hostilities

Canadian unions and aluminum and steel companies said the tariffs will cause serious damage to the industry and workers.

 

“Trump is knowingly inflicting damage to the North American manufacturing sector with these inflationary tariffs that will injure workers, eliminate jobs, and hurt consumers,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne.

 

She said Canada had lived up to its 2019 agreement with the U.S. that implement a monitoring system for any potential surges in the metals markets, as a commitment to stop the importation of aluminum and steel that is unfairly subsidized or sold at below-market price.

 

“Canada has lived up to its commitments and the U.S. knows it. Tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum have nothing to do with trade in those sectors but are instead an assault designed to weaken Canada’s economy and steal our jobs,” said Unifor Quebec director Daniel Cloutier.

 

Matt Walker, President of the Canada Metal Processing Group, said the steel industry supports Ottawa’s retaliatory measures but wants the government to impose remission surtaxes on steel as well as steel derivatives from China and other countries that engage in unfair practices.

 

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail