The decision by the United States Friday to remove steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico drew quick praise from several industry associations and business groups. The U.S. administration’s actions remove a 25% tariff on steel and 10% tariff on aluminum that had been placed on Mexico and Canada about a year ago under Section 232. Canada announced it would eliminate retaliatory duties.
The Coalition of American Metal Manufacturers and Users also welcomed the agreement and urged further action. “We urge the Trump Administration to terminate the remaining Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs on our other trading partners as quickly as possible,” said spokesperson Paul Nathanson in a statement. The administration’s steel trade enforcement action has stabilized the domestic industry to a point where it believes alternative arrangements can be made with Canada and Mexico. Domestic output and capacity utilization are up, more than 12,000 new jobs have been announced, and import penetration is down. Steelmakers are investing billions of dollars in their American facilities,” noted AAM President Scott Paul in a statement.
As part of the agreement to scrap the levies, the U.S. will be able to impose new tariffs on Canada and Mexico if they don’t do enough to prevent any surge of imports of the metals, people familiar with the matter said. The nations have also all agreed to ramp up efforts to trace where the metals have come from originally, to stop the diversion of shipments from other nations to dodge the tariffs.