{"id":214800,"date":"2019-05-18T03:36:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T07:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214800"},"modified":"2019-05-18T08:47:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T12:47:42","slug":"long-awaited-end-to-canadas-tariff-standoff-with-u-s-finally-at-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/18\/long-awaited-end-to-canadas-tariff-standoff-with-u-s-finally-at-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Long awaited end to Canada’s tariff standoff with U.S. finally at hand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Canada and the U.S. both say they will now work together in the coming weeks to get legal approval\u00a0of\u00a0the new continental trade deal \u2014 a reboot\u00a0of\u00a0the original, 25-year-old NAFTA, which Trump has staked much\u00a0of\u00a0his political reputation on either replacing or ripping up. (File Photo<\/a>: Justin Trudeau\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration agreed Friday to drop its punitive and controversial tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, ending a bitter dispute between historic allies and removing a key obstacle to ratifying the new North American trade pact.<\/p>\n

Canada and the U.S. both say they will now work together in the coming weeks to get legal approval\u00a0of\u00a0the new continental trade deal \u2014 a reboot\u00a0of\u00a0the original, 25-year-old NAFTA, which Trump has staked much\u00a0of\u00a0his political reputation on either replacing or ripping up.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau framed his victory lap carefully so as not to offend the mercurial U.S. president, who called him weak and dishonest after last year’s G7 summit in Quebec \u2014 a nadir on Canada-U.S. relations that came at the height\u00a0of\u00a0cross-border tensions over trade and tariffs, Trump’s preferred lever when it comes to foreign relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just pure good news for Canadians,\u201d Trudeau said Friday during a previously unscheduled, last-minute visit to a Stelco plant in Hamilton, Canada’s steel-manufacturing capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies will know that their jobs are just a little more secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau avoided mentioning China by name \u2014 the country that the U.S. and Canada must now carefully monitor, under the terms\u00a0of\u00a0the agreement, to prevent cheap foreign steel from being dumped into North America. Canada is embroiled in a political crisis with China, which has jailed two Canadian men on national-security grounds and imposed a death sentence on a third for drug smuggling.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough was good news politically for an embattled Liberal government that is heading into a federal election in October and must win seats in vote-rich Ontario, where Conservative Premier Doug Ford has mounted a public campaign against the federal carbon tax.<\/p>\n

Ford issued a statement, without naming Trudeau, that said he was \u201cpleased\u201d on behalf\u00a0of\u00a0his province’s workers that the tariffs were coming off.<\/p>\n

The deal is a foreign policy win for Trudeau, whose oversight\u00a0of\u00a0Canada’s most important international relationship has been complicated by a bellicose American president unafraid\u00a0of\u00a0flinging personal insults, accusing a key neighbour\u00a0of\u00a0threatening national security and accusing Canadian farmers\u00a0of\u00a0taking advantage\u00a0of\u00a0unfair trading practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stayed strong because that’s what workers were asking … that’s what Canadians were saying,\u201d Trudeau said. \u201cThese tariffs didn’t make sense around national security. They were hurting Canadian consumers, Canadian workers, and American workers and American consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did make the commitment to work with the United States on watching how the industry is evolving and making sure that we’re not becoming victims\u00a0of\u00a0global pressures on our steel industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global Affairs Canada says the tariffs will be removed within two days, while Canada has also agreed to drop all\u00a0of\u00a0its retaliatory measures and legal actions against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization.<\/p>\n

The deal prompted U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence to announce plans to meet with Trudeau in Ottawa May 30 in hopes\u00a0of\u00a0\u201dadvancing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as swiftly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is WIN for all three nations,\u201d Pence tweeted.<\/p>\n

Prior to speaking to journalists, Trudeau toured the Stelco facility and met workers to break the news directly to them first. He was joined by several cabinet ministers, including Freeland and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.<\/p>\n

Word\u00a0of\u00a0the agreement began to trickle out Friday amid reports that U.S. negotiators had backed off long-standing demands for a hard limit on imports\u00a0of\u00a0Canadian steel and aluminum, part\u00a0of\u00a0an effort to keep cheap Chinese product out\u00a0of\u00a0the country.<\/p>\n

Last May, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs were necessary to prevent a flood\u00a0of\u00a0cheap Chinese steel into the U.S. through its NAFTA partner countries, and conceded they were aimed at accelerating trade talks. Canada responded with dollar-for-dollar \u201ccountermeasures\u201d on $16 billion worth\u00a0of\u00a0American imports.<\/p>\n

The Commerce Department said Friday the resolution was good news for American farmers who had been hit with retaliatory tariffs from Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great relationship with Canada and the prime minister \u2014 we have a great relationship, but they’ve been charging us extremely high tariffs,\u201d Trump said, adding that he hoped Congress would approve the new trade pact quickly now that the tariffs were removed.<\/p>\n

For some, however, the scars will linger.<\/p>\n

Bruce Heyman, former president Barack Obama’s ambassador to Canada, said the decision is good news, but that Trump owes Canada an apology for the way it’s been treated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is like the arsonist who lights the fire, puts it out and declares some kind\u00a0of\u00a0victory … like he’s the saviour,\u201d Heyman said.<\/p>\n

Trudeau offered a shout-out to Canadian unions for their support, and said it helped the government hold firm to U.S. demands that it submit to quotas before lifting the tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnding tariffs means Canadians can get back to work,\u201d Hassan Yussuf, the president\u00a0of\u00a0the Canadian Labour Congress, said on Twitter.<\/p>\n

The Trudeau government branded the tariffs as illegal, absurd and insulting, warning that Canada and Mexico would struggle to ratify new deal, which Trump has branded the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, with the levies still in place.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has also been working to demonstrate to Washington that it has taken steps to stem the flow\u00a0of\u00a0cheaper Chinese metals into Canada. But Canada stood firm with the U.S. on one key, related point: it has steadfastly refused to agree to quotas or other limits on its exports to get the tariffs lifted.<\/p>\n

The agreement says the U.S. and Canada will establish a process for monitoring steel and aluminum trade between them.<\/p>\n

It says the two countries will consult if there’s a surge\u00a0of\u00a0steel or aluminum imports \u201cbeyond historic volumes\u00a0of\u00a0trade over a period\u00a0of\u00a0time\u201d and gives the countries the right re-impose 25 per-cent duties on steel and 10-per cent on aluminum.<\/p>\n

Toronto trade lawyer Lawrence Herman said it’s too soon to predict whether Democrats in the U.S. House\u00a0of\u00a0Representatives will ratify the new North American trade pact.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it looks like some sense\u00a0of\u00a0sanity has prevailed in the White House at long last, helped along the way by huge pressure from the U.S. private sector that found these surcharges to be very hurtful.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration agreed Friday to drop its punitive and controversial tariffs on Canadian steel and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":166620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,54365,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-instagram","category-news","mauthors-mike-blanchfield","mauthors-james-mccarten","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214801,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214800\/revisions\/214801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}