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Swordsmyth
01-12-2019, 09:24 PM
Canada is working with politicians and businesses in the United States to pressure President Donald Trump to scrap tariffs on its steel and aluminum, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.

Trudeau, who did end up signing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement last November, said the government was trying to change Trump's mind as the United States prepared to start the ratification of the pact.
"We have already been working with members of Congress, with governors, with business interests who are being affected negatively by these tariffs ... to put pressure on the President that in the process of ratification, they (the United States) should remove those steel and aluminum tariffs," he said.
Trudeau made his remarks during a televised question-and-answer session with an audience in Regina in the western province of Saskatchewan.
Asked why he had signed the USMCA with the tariffs still in place, Trudeau said securing the deal "at a time of unpredictability and protectionism in the United States was a massive priority for all Canadians".
Canada sends 75 percent of all its goods exports to the United States.
Trudeau and Trump discussed the tariffs on Monday but no talks on lifting the sanctions are planned, a Canadian source familiar with the matter said.
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said on Wednesday the measures would have to be lifted in order to get agricultural interests to support congressional approval for the USMCA.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/canada-working-put-pressure-trump-over-metals-tariffs-034418751--finance.html

If the tariffs will stop the USMCA then we should all support them.

Zippyjuan
01-12-2019, 10:17 PM
US has the most expensive steel in the world now (for steel users- making them less competitive) thanks to those tariffs.

https://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/why-trump-is-loathe-to-drop-tariffs-on-canadian-steel-regardless-of-nafta-outcome


But the biggest impact of the tariffs has been on pricing, with the benchmark price for hot rolled steel rising to US $911 per tonne in July, a 50 per cent increase from the previous November. The price has since moderated, settling at $850 per tonne, compared to US$650 a tonne in Canada and US$600 in Europe.

And they haven't really increased investment in more output.


While a number of new steel projects have been announced in the U.S., none of them add up to the kind of massive greenfield investment necessary to help U.S. mills better compete in world markets or for the 20 per cent of the U.S. market usually fed by imports, Connelly said.

Indeed, many of the investments announced seem to be incremental, he said, aimed at making up for upkeep that was postponed during previous market downturns.

“If you examine production from before the tariffs came in March 2018 and after, you don’t really see a structural shift that can’t be explained by regular seasonal variation in the data,” Connelly said.

Part of the challenge, he added, is that firms are unlikely to invest heavily in new operations if they think the tariffs are temporary.

“If we think the U.S. really wants to add more long term sustainable jobs to the industry then what they really need to do is substantially reduce imports. That suggests the tariffs have to be permanent for long term business planning.”

Though the U.S. initially exempted Canada and Mexico from blanket tariffs of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminum, Trump allowed those reprieves to expire on June 1 pending the outcome of the NAFTA talks. That prompted Canada to immediately hit back with retaliatory tariffs on $16.6 billion worth of American steel, aluminum and a range of other goods.

Since then, the flow of steel over the border has stalled. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of the alloy to the U.S., accounting for 16.1 per cent of the country’s imports. In addition, half of all hot rolled steel imports — a key material in auto and other manufacturing — are from NAFTA countries, said Phil Gibbs, director, senior metals equity analyst at Ohio-based Keybanc Capital Markets.

Swordsmyth
01-12-2019, 10:24 PM
US has the most expensive steel in the world now (for steel users making them less competitive) thanks to those tariffs.

https://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/why-trump-is-loathe-to-drop-tariffs-on-canadian-steel-regardless-of-nafta-outcome



And they haven't really increased investment in more output.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “We have found absolutely no evidence of broad, negative impacts on the economy [because of] steel and aluminum tariffs to date.” In fact, three aluminum smelters are being restarted, with another one undergoing an expansion of its capacity. The Institute said that the initial impact was the addition of 300 jobs in aluminum smelting alone, but collateral aluminum companies involved in finishing aluminum products for consumers are generating some $3.3 billion in investments “that could employ 2,000 more workers” overall. As Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, noted, “Orders are up. Shipments are up. Hiring is up. Wages are up. No matter what metric you look at, the steel industry is unquestionably doing better than it has been for the past couple of years."
The Institute also pointed out the lack of any evidence of a slowdown elsewhere in the economy, noting that since the tariffs were imposed last May, U.S. manufacturing has added more than 200,000 jobs.

More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/markets/item/31165-bull-market-could-run-for-10-more-years-tariffs-are-helping

Swordsmyth
01-12-2019, 10:26 PM
US has the most expensive steel in the world now (for steel users making them less competitive) thanks to those tariffs.

https://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/why-trump-is-loathe-to-drop-tariffs-on-canadian-steel-regardless-of-nafta-outcome



And they haven't really increased investment in more output.

Our steel industry was going to die completely and that would have been very bad for our independence and liberty.

Zippyjuan
01-12-2019, 10:29 PM
Our steel industry was going to die completely and that would have been very bad for our independence and liberty.

We are the third largest steel producer (fourth if you count the EU as one unit) behind only China, Japan, and India.

specsaregood
01-12-2019, 10:33 PM
Has Canada dropped all their tariffs on American goods?

Swordsmyth
01-12-2019, 10:35 PM
We are the third largest steel producer (fourth if you count the EU as one unit) behind only China, Japan, and India.
And China was intent on wiping out one of our few remaining industries and they were making progress.

Zippyjuan
01-12-2019, 10:41 PM
And China was intent on wiping out one of our few remaining industries and they were making progress.

Actually we have been pretty steady in production. Labor usage has been lower due to more automation. We also produce more recycled steel in addition to raw steel. Recycled uses fewer resources and less energy.

https://usa.arcelormittal.com/~/media/Images/A/Arcelormittal-USA-V2/Integrated-report/2017-integrated-report/Business-and-Strategy/IntegratedvsMini-2017.jpg?h=553&w=800

Swordsmyth
01-12-2019, 10:57 PM
Actually we have been pretty steady in production. Labor usage has been lower due to more automation. We also produce more recycled steel in addition to raw steel. Recycled uses fewer resources and less energy.

https://usa.arcelormittal.com/~/media/Images/A/Arcelormittal-USA-V2/Integrated-report/2017-integrated-report/Business-and-Strategy/IntegratedvsMini-2017.jpg?h=553&w=800
We should have been able to increase production.
They were reducing costs in order to stay alive but they were running out of costs to reduce and China was continuing to increase its overcapacity and dump steel on the market, eventually they were going to kill our industry.

oyarde
01-12-2019, 10:58 PM
Trudeau will do what he is told .