Canada to adjust metal counter tariffs against U.S. on July 21: Carney

Canada will adjust counter-tariffs on steel and aluminum products on July 21 to levels “consistent” with progress made during trade negotiation with the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday.

He did not specify what those adjusted tariffs would amount to. July 21 coincides with the end of the 30-day trade deal deadline announced after Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump met in Kananaskis, Alta., on the sidelines of the G7.

In addition to adjusting those counter tariffs, Canada will limit federal procurement policies to favour Canadian suppliers and “reliable trading partners” by June 30, according to a press release.

Third, the government will unleash new, retroactive tariff quota rates, at 100 per cent of 2024 levels, on imports of steel products from non-free trade agreement countries. More tariff measures will be adopted in the coming weeks to respond to “unfair trade in the steel and aluminum sectors, which are exacerbated by U.S. actions,” the news release adds.

Ottawa is also creating two task forces, one for steel and the other for aluminum, to closely monitor trade and support the government’s decision making.

Industries buckling under tariff pressure

The announcement comes as Canada’s metals industries strain under the pressure of Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

In early June, the president hiked existing metals tariffs from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in a move to protect American workers, which he said had been “harmed by unfair trade practices and global excess capacity,” according to the White House.

Since initial tariffs were unleashed, layoffs have spiked, investments have waned, and shipments have slowed in the steel sector, Canadian Steel Producers Association CEO Catherine Cobden said.

On June 4, the day Trump’s doubled tariffs took effect, Cobden released a stark statement to media: “At a 50 per cent tariff rate, the U.S. market is effectively closed to Canadian steel, leaving billions of dollars of Canadian steel without a market.”

She demanded urgent action from the Canadian government. Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called on Ottawa to call Trump’s raise and add another 25 per cent to Canada’s retaliatory tariffs.

At the time, Industry Minister Melanie Joly said Canada had to be deliberate in its response, adding she and her colleagues on Parliament Hill were working on a path forward.

‘Unfairly traded, subsidized steel’

While Trump’s tariffs may have shut Canadian metals exports out of the U.S. market, they also redirected Asian subsidized steel exports into Canada.

That’s according to Keanin Loomis, president of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, who told CTV News that Canada must align itself more closely with the U.S. on issues of metals imports.

“There’s a lot of unfairly traded, subsidized steel … that’s decimated our domestic industries,” he said during an interview with CTV News Channel. After the U.S. imposed tariffs on imports, “this steel is trying to find a home and looking, of course, northward,” he added.

New tariffs unveiled in the coming weeks will combat symptoms of “persistent global overcapacity,” the government news release explained.