Ontario Construction News staff writer
Canadian steel producers are sounding the alarm after the United States doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, raising duties from 25 to 50 per cent effective Wednesday.
Catherine Cobden, President and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA), called the move a “devastating blow” to the domestic industry, warning it could effectively close off the U.S. market to half of Canada’s steel production and cause widespread disruption across the cross-border supply chain.
She is urging the Canadian government to act quickly by reinstating retaliatory tariffs and blocking unfairly traded foreign steel from entering Canada.
“Steel tariffs at this level will create mass disruption and negative consequences across our highly integrated steel supply chains and customers on both sides of the border,” she said in a statement. “It is vital that the Government of Canada responds immediately to fully re-instate retaliatory steel tariffs to match the American tariffs and to implement as quickly as possible new tariffs at our own borders to stop unfairly traded steel from entering Canada.
“Canadian steel is a strategic sector that is key to our economic and national security.”
Sectors fueled by the steel industry will be impacted, Cobden warned, including energy, automotives, manufacturing and defence “which create hundreds of thousands of jobs across Canada.”
The tariff increase follows an executive order signed Tuesday by President Donald Trump, who said the measure is necessary to protect U.S. national security and domestic industries. However, with about a quarter of the steel used in the U.S. coming from imports—many from Canada—the decision is expected to have broad repercussions.
Cobden warned that the U.S. decision could lead to “unrecoverable consequences” for Canadian producers, many of whom depend on access to American markets.