For steel, options under consideration include a heavy-handed approach on shipments from 12 countries including China and Russia while allowing for exemptions for allies like Canada and Japan. The U.S. Commerce Department didn’t recommend giving Canada a pass when it outlined possible tariffs and quotas on Friday, but it did single out its northern neighbour’s importance to the U.S. aluminum industry. The biggest steel and aluminum exporter to the U.S. is hopeful of being left out of a Trump administration crackdown on foreign shipments. “If any country should be granted an exemption, I put my bet on Canada,” Aluminum Association of Canada President Jean Simard said by telephone. The aim of the tariffs is to boost U.S. output to at least 80 per cent of capacity by cutting steel imports by 13.3 million metric tons and aluminum imports by 669,000 tons.

Source: thestar February 20, 2018 14:48 UTC