DM Monitoring
OTTAWA: Canada welcomed the U.S. decision to drop tariff on Canadian aluminum imports on Tuesday.
At a press conference in Ottawa Tuesday afternoon, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland welcomed the decision. “This is really a day when common sense has prevailed.”
Freeland stressed that the U.S. decision was not a negotiated agreement with Canada and the U.S. government acted “unilaterally” and Canada does not accept the imposition of quotas.
“Should tariffs be reimposed, Canada will retaliate with perfectly reciprocal dollar-for-dollar tariffs,” Freeland said.
Meanwhile, Canadian Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng said at the press conference that Canada did not concede anything in exchange for the U.S. decision. “It is a testament to the Team Canada approach, as we all worked relentlessly to ensure these unjustified tariffs on Canadian aluminum were removed.”
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer announced Tuesday afternoon that the United States has dropped its 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum.
“Average monthly imports are expected to decline 50 percent from the monthly average in the period of January through July,” he said. “Based on these expectations, the United States will resume duty-free treatment of non-alloyed, unwrought aluminum retrospective to Sept. 1, 2020.”
“If actual shipments exceeded 105 percent of the expected volume for any month during the four-month period, then the United States will impose the 10 percent tariff retroactively on all shipments made in that month,” he added.
