Canada Border Services Agency has been given heightened authority to crack down on an anticipated wave of foreign-dumped steel coming into Canada that is headed for the U.S. market.
Canada is one of six countries being exempted from U.S. government’s tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum.
Domestic steel producers fear the tariff exemption could spur foreign steelmakers to use Canada as a safe landing spot to divert steel products into the American market and thus avoid duties.
Among the new measures being brought into force:
• New anti-circumvention investigations will allow the Canada Border Services Agency to identify and stop companies that try to dodge duties, for example by slightly modifying products or assembling them in Canada or a third country.
• In calculating duties, the Canada Border Services Agency will have greater flexibility in determining whether prices charged in the exporter’s domestic market, which we use for comparison, are fair or distorted.
• Unions will gain standing to participate in trade-remedy proceedings, including at the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, into whether foreign exports are hurting domestic producers.
Ottawa also promises to:
• Coordinate more closely with our partners to strengthen enforcement at the border, including by increasing the frequency of meetings between border agencies. This will improve the sharing of information and enforcement action. We will also urgently undertake a review to make sure our enforcement agencies have all the resources they need to take action on unfair trade.
• Look to meet more often with the United States and Mexico to identify and discuss solutions to issues that harm all three countries, including transshipments and diversion, and global overcapacity.
• Participate in new federal-provincial-territorial-stakeholder committees, which will meet regularly to monitor steel and aluminum trade to ensure imports do not hurt Canadian and North American jobs.
In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian industries rely on an integrated trade relationship with the U.S. that can’t be threatened.
“Canada will not be used as a backdoor into other North American markets. Our people have worked hard to be competitive in this global economy, and they deserve a level playing field.”
Sault Ste. Marie MP Terry Sheehan, who accompanied Trudeau on a tour of Essar Steel Algoma on March 14, was pleased that Ottawa is taking action.
“While in the Sault, the PM and I heard from people at the gates, during the tour of Algoma and at the roundtable that Canada needed further actions to prevent trans-shipment and diversion of steel to protect steel workers against unfair trade. “
