Officials From Canada And Mexico Say Metals Tariffs Must Be Addressed As Part Of USMCA Review

As Reuters reported earlier this month, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country wants to reach an ‌agreement with the United States regarding the exchange of steel, aluminum, and automobiles prior to completing the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada ​(USMCA) trade pact. The comments came before U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with President Sheinbaum last week to discuss the state of trade and economic relations between the two countries.

During that meeting, Ambassador Greer praised the president for her work to expand bilateral cooperation. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also announced the United States and Mexico have agreed to hold their first official bilateral USMCA negotiating round. It will occur during the week of May 25 in Mexico City.

Meanwhile, Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister in charge of trade relations with the United States, made the same arguments about the USMCA as Sheinbaum. While acknowledging it is unlikely President Donald Trump completely removes the metals tariffs, Minister LeBlanc said, “[W]e’re not going to make a series of concessions or agree to a series of things that aren’t in the interest of the Canadian economy, just to get to a [negotiating] table.”

Additionally, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he would not allow the United States to dictate the terms of USMCA renew. Prime Minister Carney also took aim directly at U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs. “What are our trade irritants? There’s a 50 percent tariff on aluminum, 50 percent tariff on steel,” Prime Minister Carney said in remarks on April 23. “Those are more than irritants. Those are violations of our trade deal.”

In other trade news: on April 21, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) ruled that anti-dumping tariffs will be imposed on foreign steel imports sold by Tenaris S.A. and certain exporters from South Korea, Turkey, and the Philippines. The measures will remain in place for five years, in accordance with Canada’s trade remedy laws. Read more at this link.

As a reminder, when it comes to the United States’ Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, Connecting the Dots reports developments for members’ information only. MSCI consistently has argued that global overcapacity and other unfair trading practices, particularly by China, have harmed the U.S. steel and aluminum markets. To address this circumvention, MSCI has advised officials to provide relief for producers up and down the supply chain and to consider the consequences of any new trade policy, including:

• The economic impact of global overcapacity on the entire domestic metals supply chain;
• Transition times and implementation rules to any new policy;
• Availability of domestic metals to meet U.S. national security needs, as well as general industrial and consumer demand; and
• Trade flows under current free trade agreements, including the USMCA.

MSCI also asked that Canada and Mexico be excluded from any trade penalties. Click here to review all of MSCI’s advocacy on Section 232 tariffs.