Standing Committee on International Trade

Comité permanent du commerce international

For immediate release

Ottawa, February 20, 2019 -

Today, the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade presented, in the House of Commons, a report entitled Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act: Implications of Tariffs for Canada. The report contains five recommendations relating to the United States’ actual and potential use of section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to apply tariffs on Canadian products.

“Canada and the United States are valued trade and defence partners for each other,” said the Honourable Mark Eyking, P.C., M.P., Chair of the Committee. “Ideally, the two countries would provide each other’s steel and aluminum producers with unrestricted and reciprocal market access. However, the tariffs that the United States is currently applying on certain Canadian steel and aluminum products are limiting Canada’s access to the U.S. market, and are adversely affecting Canada’s firms and workers, and cross-border supply chains.”

Mr. Eyking concluded: “The Committee hopes that implementation of the recommendations in the report would both help to prevent the application of future section 232 tariffs on Canadian products, and restore Canadian steel and aluminum firms’ access to the U.S. market. As well, their implementation could mitigate the impacts of such tariffs on these firms while protecting the interests of firms and workers in other sectors, including those that use steel and aluminum products as production inputs.”

The Committee’s report can be accessed on its website.