[Newsbot]

Title: U.S. plans to slap tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada, Bloomberg report says
Category: Uncle Sam
Posted By: Robair
Date: 2020-06-23 06:08:41
Canadian

[DrCaleb]

You go NAFTA!

[Robair]

I think you're confused. NAFTA was the worst trade agreement ever in the history of the planet.

What we have now is called USMABCD or something. Or Spaceforce. I can't remember.

[Martin15]

Hey.. thank Grimace.

[DrCaleb]

USACOVEFE-19 is the best trade agreement ever! Everything has been a total disaster! Sad.

[Freakinoldguy]

You had to know this was coming. They've fucked us over with bullshit tariffs and duties on everything they could think of since we became a country.

My guess, is given the number of times that we've been screwed over by the US gov't with their bullshit tariffs and broken trade agreements that they've come to think that "fuck over Canada" is just another in a long line of gov't traditions.

[DrCaleb]

The only saving grace of this new trade debacle is we held firm and kept the sections for Arbitration, for which we've never lost.

It just takes a while, and a political leader unwilling to surrender in the face of victory.

[CharlesAnthony]

Meh. We are at war.
The "Canadian" metal producers are going to have to find some other buyers. Let us all cry a few tears for their plight.

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Canada rejects the idea of voluntarily restricting production to satisfy American demands. (It's also not really proper for publicly-traded corporations to do.)

This unwillingness to go along with voluntary export quotas is what sparked the latest tariff threats: higher prices discourage imports by another means.

Simard said the total volume of aluminum coming out of Canada hasn't changed significantly — only the type of product has changed, for reasons that are entirely short-term and related to the pandemic.

Allegations of a threatening surge are "totally false" and "unfounded," he said.

"It's purely market dynamics," he said, adding that the same substitutions happened during the last financial crisis in 2008-09.

"Everybody is doing this. It's the only way to keep plants operating and keep the link with the market," he said. "The problem is caused directly and certainly by COVID. It's a matter of months for the situation to correct itself."

An 'extortion syndicate'

A decision by the Trump administration to reapply the tariff would be curiously timed.

In the new North American trade agreement that takes effect July 1, the Trump administration specifically negotiated requirements for the automotive industry to use more North American steel and aluminum, in an effort to shut out offshore suppliers and repatriate jobs.

Canadian aluminum is geographically convenient and produced in cost-efficient mills, so in theory, the new NAFTA should be a growth opportunity.

But depending on whether a new tariff is applied specifically to P1020 aluminum or across the board — hitting value-added automotive inputs as well — the Trump administration could be taxing automotive suppliers by an extra ten per cent, just as they're struggling to recover.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/alumin ... -1.5624524