Drazek argues the national security justification is “bogus” and only invites retaliation against US agriculture.
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Meanwhile, Canacero urged the Mexican government to prevent the local market from being used as a “trade triangulation” environment by exporters intent on redirecting steel volumes previously destined for the United States, as well as to defend the national industry from unfair steel imports.
“At this stage we can not measure the impact of the tariff”.
The threat of tariffs, he said, “do limit, in my view, our ability to compromise” in negotiations on a revised trade pact. “We knew a decision would come”.
The Mexico City round of NAFTA talks was thrown into disarray after Trump announced a plan last week to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium imports, arguing they were needed to protect USA industries and jobs.
Arizona can benefit from trade with Mexico and Canada, but a tweak to NAFTA won’t cut it.
“We don’t have all the details but we are going to continue to engage with USA officials and show them the benefits of the integrated North American aluminium supply chain”, said Gagnon. “Especially if the USA is no longer going to be a reliable supplier”.
The U.S. actually maintained a $12.5-billion trade surplus with Canada in 2016. The TN program is uncapped and includes nearly none of the USA worker protections Congress has included for certain other temporary worker programs (such as the requirement that employers advertise the position, pay the worker the prevailing wage, and ensure that importing foreign workers will not adversely impact the working conditions of US workers).
Sources described the conversation as cordial, and said Trudeau told the president that he shares a desire to conclude a NAFTA agreement.
“The timeline is always very important”.
“A diary processing plant in Garden City had plans to process dry milk for export to China”, he said. “So it doesn’t look good when it all comes out of China, so they send it through other countries and it comes to us”, he said.
We can not measure how Trump’s hostile and sometimes racist comments about Mexicans will change Mexico’s willingness to make trade concessions. When Canada’s economy suffers, so do US exports to this country. We need steel and we need aluminium. This is part of the change that is ahead of us. “NAFTA is a complicated trade agreement”. “There are virtually no costs here”, Navarro said of the action, which he has long lobbied the president for.
Flake also says using the tariffs is not a good way to prod Mexico and Canada to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“If the US does unilaterally withdraw from NAFTA, all bets are off”, Monex Canada’s Berich said.
Of course, it could be a Trumpian tactic in NAFTA talks – although the problem is that no viable NAFTA deal is on the table right now.
Clearly, damage has already been done to USA interests.
Conditions supportive of the Canadian dollar include strong global and domestic growth and interest rate hikes from the Bank of Canada, Berich said.
The tariffs would “only come off if a new and fair NAFTA agreement is signed”, Trump tweeted.
The Canadian government isn’t celebrating yet.
Trump said Canada and Mexico would not get any relief from his plan to place the tariffs on the imports, but he suggested he might be willing to exempt the two long-standing allies if they agreed to better NAFTA terms – saying in a tweet that NAFTA “has been a bad deal for United States of America”.
Such a move could create more well-paying jobs in Mexico, he said.
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He said the tariffs would also hurt the USA auto industry and result in higher costs for consumers on both sides of the border. “A cost increase of this magnitude will drive consumers directly into the arms of Japanese auto makers”, said Dias.
