The Canadian government has announced retaliatory measures after universal U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum came into force on March 12.
Canada’s tariffs will be implemented on March 13 and target CA$29.8 billion in U.S. goods, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced in a press conference in Ottawa on March 12.
LeBlanc said the measures target steel products and other goods such as computers and sports equipment. They will be implemented alongside Canada’s other counter-tariffs imposed earlier this month in response to U.S. tariffs related to border security and fentanyl. LeBlanc said these tariffs are part of the initially announced $155 billion in retaliatory measures, of which $30 billion were implemented in early March.
“We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted,” LeBlanc said.
The measures involve imposing a 25 percent surtax on $12.6 billion worth of steel products, $3 billion worth of aluminum products, and $14.2 billion on other goods.
The European Union also announced counter-tariffs in response to the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, to be implemented in April. Other countries like the United Kingdom and Australia have not announced any retaliation measures so far.
Trump said closing this gap and rebuilding domestic manufacturing capability is a matter of national security.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly accused Trump of using national security as an “excuse,” comparing it to his reasoning for border-related tariffs, which she said was based on “exaggerated claims.”
“The latest excuse is national security, despite the fact that Canadian steel and aluminum add to America’s security, not take away from it,” she said during the press conference.
Canada is currently the United States’ largest provider of steel and aluminum. A large portion of Canadian steel imports also come from the United States, with the trade in steel between both countries being worth $20 billion, according to the Canadian Steel Producers Association.
The main production hub for steel in Canada is in Hamilton, Ont., while the province of Quebec is the leader for aluminum.
The sectors employ 150,000 workers across Canada and one job in the aluminum sector supports 13 jobs in the United States, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said during the press conference.
Trump in his first presidential term had imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, using the same rationale. Canada had responded in kind and had imposed other tariffs on targeted U.S. goods. The two countries lifted the barriers almost a year later, after coming to an agreement to crack down on dumping and transshipment by other countries.
In response to Trump’s tariffs related to border security and fentanyl, which kicked in earlier this month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on March 10 he was slapping a surtax on electricity exports to three U.S. states.
Trump responded the next day by saying Canada should not be using electricity as a “bargaining chip and threat” and that it would pay a “big” price for doing so, while announcing the doubling of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50 percent.
The matter was resolved later in the day after a phone call between Ford and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Ford said he was removing the electricity surtax and the two mentioned they would meet this week in Washington to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade deal ahead of April 2.
LeBlanc and Champagne will also be part of the trip to the U.S. capital. LeBlanc said the discussion will not be around renegotiating the USMCA, however, but instead about “lowering the temperature” and lowering the tariffs.
Champagne said he would tell the Trump administration that markets have been reacting in recent days to the uncertainty brought by tariffs, with trillions lost in valuations. “The markets are speaking, the industry is speaking,” Champagne said. “I think we need to find a way to de-escalate what we’ve seen in the past few days, to come back to a situation where we can have investments on both sides of the border.”
The United States will unveil another wave of tariffs on April 2 directed at all its trading partners as it seeks reciprocity. The Trump administration has already signalled discontent with a number of Canadian policies considered as trade barriers, such as its national sales tax (GST) and its Digital Services Tax impacting U.S. tech giants.
