SMM: according to MiningWeekly, citing Bloomberg News, the United States should be cautious in deciding whether to impose tariffs on aluminum imports. If the United States imposes tariffs on aluminum imports, Canada will take retaliatory measures.
At the heart of the tariff dispute is whether Canadian primary aluminum imports have soared since the tariff was lifted in May 2019, and if so, in violation of recent trade agreements. Kirsten Hillman (Kirsten Hillman), Canada's ambassador to the United States, said aluminum producers were forced to switch from highly processed products to more non-alloy or primary aluminum products because of falling demand during the outbreak.
As the automotive industry and other manufacturing industries resume production, demand for high value-added aluminium products will pick up. Hillman believes that in the next few months, the situation will return to the previous situation, it will take some time to observe, and the two sides should negotiate in the form of normal trade.
Hillman said in a recent telephone interview that if the United States imposes import tariffs, Canada has no choice but to raise taxes on imports of American products, and has not yet decided how to respond.
U. S. officials and company executives disagree on how to deal with the matter. Robert Lightheiser (Robert Lighthizer), the US trade representative, and some producers complained of a sharp rise in imports of primary aluminum from Canada. The Alcoa Association, made up of members of Alcoa (Alcoa), Rio Tinto and more than a dozen other aluminium parts makers, said imports were now at levels similar to those before the Trump administration imposed tariffs under clause 232.
Hillman and Canadian officials have learned that the United States is considering imposing a 10% tariff on imports of primary aluminum from Canada, as Bloomberg reported last month.
Alcoa said in April that it had shifted 20 per cent of its high value-added aluminium products to raw aluminium because aluminum products were not as easy to store as raw aluminium. Many other producers around the world are taking a similar approach to avoid the high cost of smelting capacity closures.
Hillman said it was wrong to take this approach during an economic downturn, especially after agreements signed by the United States, Mexico and Canada have entered into force. "the recent attempt by US manufacturing to recover by imposing import tariffs has made a mistake in the direction." Hillman said.
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