Toronto, Ontario – The United States has dropped its 10 percent tariff on Canadian aluminum, according to a report from CTV.
This announcement comes mere hours before the Canadian government had planned to announce their retaliatory measures.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer referred to “consultations” held with Canadian officials that apparently led to the decision to withdraw the tariffs that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has long been calling “unjust”. Lighthizer suggested that a balancing of the aluminum trade is likely to occur within the coming months and the decision to withdraw was made in light of this information.
The Canadian government’s response to the tariffs was to be announced at 3 p.m EST on Tuesday, however, the opportunity will instead be used for Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Minister Mary Ng to respond to the U.S.’s last-minute decision.
Lighthizer’s office warns that a “surge” in imports could lead to the tariff being reimposed, however.
The tariffs were originally introduced on Aug. 16 with U.S. President Donald Trump imposing the charges under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act, a measure that deals with products that are considered to pose a threat to American national security.
Shortly after Trump’s plans for the tariffs became public, Canadian officials said that they were planning to hit back with billion-dollar countermeasures that Freeland aimed to “inflict the minimal amount of damage on Canada, and to have frankly the strongest possible impact in the United States.”
