OTTAWA — The Carney government will announce new measures Wednesday to restrict foreign steel imports and bolster Canadian steel producers facing financial damage due to the U.S. tariff war.
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent import duties continue to pummel Canadian steel and aluminum products, Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to unveil more relief for the domestic steel sector.
The measures will include new restrictions on steel imports from countries that don’t have a free-trade agreement with Canada, lowering their share of imports from 50 per cent to 20 per cent, according to a senior government official.
That move is expected to allow Canadian steel producers to step in and take up market space worth about $854 million, said the source, who spoke on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the pending announcement.
Carney will also move to lower domestic shipping costs for steel producers, asking CN to lower freight rates for interprovincial rail shipments of Canadian steel. If, for some reason, the lowest rate cannot apply, Ottawa will subsidize the shipments by agreeing to pay the difference, the source said.
The prime minister is also expected to announce more aid for steel businesses and workers, said the official.
The latest measures do not, however, include higher tariff rates on foreign steel imports, something that Catherine Cobden, head of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, has demanded on behalf of the industry.
But the source said steel producers have been asking for a range of measures and are expected to have the capacity to meet the demand that would be created by the import restrictions that would soon take effect.
Aluminum producers have had better luck both diversifying their exports to non-U.S. markets and shipping into the U.S., as the Canadian aluminum supply is critical to American industrial needs.
Carney’s moves come as trade talks to resolve tariffs over steel, aluminum and energy were suspended by the U.S. president last month.
Trump, irritated by Ontario’s anti-tariff ad blitz, ordered a series of talks on those three sectors to cease. Broader trade talks were supposed to follow.
On Tuesday, the prime minister made the rare admission of having made a “mistake” when, on the weekend, he flippantly replied to a reporter’s question about the last time he talked to Trump.
Carney said, “Who cares? I mean, it’s a detail. It’s a detail. I spoke to him. I’ll speak to him again when it matters.”
The Conservatives took Carney to task Monday and Tuesday in the Commons over what they claimed was his disregard for Canadians hurt by the tariff war.
On Tuesday, Carney first defended his government’s actions, saying most Canadian exports are tariff-free and “Yes, there are sectors, the auto sector, the steel sector, the lumber sector and the aluminum sector, that are under pressure. We care,” he said.
“We are acting in those sectors. There will be announcements this week of further support.”
Pressed further by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Carney took a dig at Poilievre’s failure to get elected on April 28, then admitted that on the question related to a Trump call, “that was a poor choice of words about a serious issue. And the serious issue is the progress we are making structurally, best deal in the world, strongest budget in the world, and the most new trade deals in the world.”
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