Us Reaches Agreement With Canada And Mexico On Metals Tariffs

Iowa farmers have been victims of Mexican retaliatory rights that have severely ened american agricultural exports. Mexican tariffs and similar Canadian taxes will also be eliminated. In discussions on tariff removal, U.S. officials have tried to get their North American partners to accept quotas for steel and aluminum shipments. But both Canada and Mexico, close neighbours and allies of the United States, had been angry at being called national security threats and had rejected this request. Automakers, which have announced hundreds of millions of dollars in higher U.S. costs because of tariffs, praised the deal and said it would bring the USMCA closer. Mexico and Canada were granted a temporary exemption from Section 232 tariffs when they came into effect on March 23, 2018, but the United States imposed trade measures on Mexico, Canada and the European Union in June 2018. Import duties of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum became a sensitive issue when the ratification of an updated trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The USMCA was signed in October 2018 by the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico, but must continue to obtain the approval of legislators in all three countries. By removing metal tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Trump has posed a significant obstacle to a North American trade pact negotiated last year by his team. But steel and aluminum tariffs should also lead Canada and Mexico to agree to an overhaul of the North American Free Trade Pact. According to the three countries, the 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imposed by Trump to defend U.S. national security will disappear within 48 hours. In exchange, Canada and Mexico will lift the retaliatory duties they imposed on many U.S. products, most of which were U.S. agricultural products. Canada imposed retaliatory duties on more than $12 billion in U.S. goods, while Mexico imposed similar fines on more than $3 billion in U.S. exports. The separate agreements, which do not provide U.S.

quotas for Canadian and Mexican metal supplies, will also eliminate Mexican and Canadian retaliatory duties on a wide range of U.S. products, including pork, beef and bourbon. U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed tariffs in a phone call Friday, according to a reading of the call from the prime minister`s office. Trump`s assertion that foreign cars pose a threat to national security has been welcomed by some Republicans on Capitol Hill and by industry officials. “While many automakers already buy most of their steel and aluminum domesticly, tariffs drive up these prices, reducing investment and hurting auto workers and ultimately consumers,” said the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing most major brands such as General Motors Co. Toyota Motor Corp Volkswagen AG and others. The steel deal highlights a new front in Trump`s trade policy – a self-proclaimed “Tariff Man” that has focused far more often on the imposition of tariffs than by removing them. The metals agreement was announced on the same day that the White House announced a decision to delay tariffs on motor vehicles against two other trading partners, the European Union and Japan. Platt`s metals market reports contain global news, analysis, daily prices and reviews for non-ferrous metals, ferro-alloys and steel products.

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