U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about a beetle before boarding Air Force One as he departs Washington for a campaign trip to Michigan at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., October 27, 2020 . REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Purchase license rights
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Tuesday formally lifting tariffs on raw aluminum imports from Canada, but threatened to reinstate them if there is a surge in metal imports across the U.S. northern border.
The proclamation follows an agreement announced last month by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative with Canada to reinstate a 10% “Section 232” national security tariff exclusion on Canadian imports, retroactive to Sept. 1.
Trump first granted Canada the exclusion in 2019, but a surge in imports of Canadian unalloyed raw aluminum led him to reimpose the tariffs in August, heightening tensions with Ottawa.
After consulting with Canadian counterparts, USTR said Canada is now expected to export only 70,000 to 83,000 tonnes of raw aluminum per month through December – about half the monthly rate from January to July.
Trump said in the proclamation that he could reinstate tariffs on unalloyed raw aluminum from Canada “in the event that the volume of imports of these items from Canada in the remaining months of 2020 exceeds the quantities that the United States is expected to export.” Canada will export.” .”
Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
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