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ARTICLE · 12 JUNE 2019

Surtax Ceasefire – Canada And The US Agree To End Steel Tariffs

McCarthy Tétrault
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Late last week, the US finally agreed to lift all tariffs it had previously imposed, under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act 1962, on steel and aluminum imports from Canada.

CanadaInternational Law
Terms Of Trade
Terms Of Trade
Robert Glasgow
Robert Glasgow
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Late last week, the US finally agreed to lift all tariffs it had previously imposed, under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act 1962, on steel and aluminum imports from Canada.  The US tariffs, purportedly imposed for national security reasons, had been a major obstacle to Mexico's and Canada's ratification of the CUSMA modernization of NAFTA.  Canada, accordingly, agreed to end the tariffs it had imposed in retaliation against the US tariffs.

Canada secured a considerable victory by seeing the complete removal of the section 232 tariffs without having to maintain any residual quotas or restrictions on its exports.  This contrasts heavily with the bargain struck early in the process by South Korea, which saw a quota at levels which were actually below then current export volumes.

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