‘Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual,’ Trump says while explaining why he plans to sign a proclamation that will reimpose aluminum tariffs on the country.
President Trump said Thursday that he has signed an order to re-implement 10% tariffs on Canadian aluminum.
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Canadian aluminum has flooded the American market and was poised to “kill all our aluminum jobs,” the president said.
“Earlier today I signed a proclamation that defends American industry by reimposing aluminum tariffs on Canada,” Trump said in Ohio after touring a Whirlpool manufacturing facility. “The aluminum business was being decimated by Canada, very unfair to our jobs and our great aluminum workers.”
Trump imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum in 2018 in an effort to protect American manufacturers.
Canada responded with their own tariffs on American exports before the two countries eventually agreed to drop the tariffs in May 2019.
The White House is arguing that Canada vastly increased exports of aluminum to the United States after the tariffs were lifted, harming domestic aluminum production.
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“Imports of non-alloyed unwrought aluminum from Canada during June 2019 through May 2020 increased 87 percent compared to the prior twelve-month period and exceeded the volume of any full calendar year in the previous decade,” the President wrote in the order Thursday.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the move, saying that it will increase costs for American manufacturers as the price of aluminum goes up.
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“The administration’s move to re-impose tariffs on aluminum from Canada is a step in the wrong direction,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Myron Brilliant said in a statement Thursday. “These tariffs will raise costs for American manufacturers, are opposed by most U.S. aluminum producers, and will draw retaliation against U.S. exports — just as they did before. We urge the administration to reconsider this move.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned against implementing new tariffs on aluminum last month, arguing that the United States “doesn’t make nearly enough aluminum to be able to cover its needs, particularly at a time where we want the economies to get going again across North America.”
This move comes just weeks after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA, went into effect.
