Canadian trade policy is now so contradictory that I’ll admit to not being able to keep things straight anymore. I thought the whole purpose of the “Elbows Up” campaign was to demonstrate that we could replace declining trade with the US by increasing trade with other nations. Now we appear to be doing our level best to shut the trade door with everyone else. Go figure.
The federal department of finance says it will limit the amount of foreign steel coming into the country by placing a tariff on imports that exceed a certain threshold from countries that do not have a free trade agreement with Canada.
The policy, known as a “tariff rate quota,” announced on Friday allows non-free trade countries to send the same volume of steel to Canada that they sent in recent years, but applies a 50 per cent tariff if they exceed a designated threshold in any single quarter.
The world is flat. The sky is falling. The LCBO is closed tomorrow!
But, but, but … “Tariffs CAUSED the 1929 Depression!” “Smoot-Hawley! Anyone? Anyone?”
How could Canada impose Tariffs on anything? Or any industry? LOOK … “Trump has already used Tariffs to create the WORST plunge of the stock market in the HISTORY of the world!!”
Ohhhhhhhhhh Mommmaaaaaa … no nation should ever … err, only the USA should NEVER EVER impose Tariffs on any other country!!
Smoot-Hawley!!
DEPRESSION!!!
1929!! Remember 1929!!!
Mischief is fun
Stop calling me Holly. And I’m smooting as fast as I can!
By design.
As in ,all is going to plan.
If our progressive comrades had planned to destroy Canada as a nation,starting about 1968..
What would they have done differently?
As we accelerate along the same road that Zimbabwe and Venezuela took before us,we don’t need no stinking foreign exchange..We will just print more dollars,all will be millionaires..
Forward to our glorious future.
We,who believe in wealth,property and personal freedoms have little choice left.
Once choices become binary they also become easy.
We can stick with the sinking ship,with the certainty of poverty and social disruption.
Or we can banish the idiots from our midst.
The ways we used to have worked.
Those imposed upon has do not.
What’s it gonna be?
I don’t know much about this but one of the things I heard mumbled was that Canadian steel exports sometimes consist of foreign steel reprocessed here and exported so maybe the topic is more complicated than can be summed up in a sentence or two. Unfortunately we just get a sound bite or two and jump to conclusions.
Since this is a subject that requires a lot of research, I asked my favorite AI bot and got what seems to me to be a pretty good summary .https://www.perplexity.ai/search/canada-produces-steel-processe-iGPdVSQrS0udki5yZ5obuA
I think this is the beginning of the effort to reign in China. Canada already gets steel from China with applicable tariffs currently applied. I’d be interested to know if the TRA is a cumulative tariff that gets stacked on the current tariff rate to China. If so, this might be the beginning of a little leverage to address China’s massive tariff(s) on Canadian goods.
Secondly, the US (who still holds free trade status with Canada despite the hysterics) is a primary steel provider for Canada, and the available “US” Steel is going to climb with Nippon Steel setting up shop in the US and making a major investment.
In short, this move might not be a bad thing for Canada.
Based on the announcement, they are saying that if China dumps more steel into the Canada market than they are already dumping into Canada, that steel will have additional Tariffs?
China went almost doubled the amount of pipe and tube from 16,381 Tonnes (Nov 5,2024 to March31, 2025) to 31,941 Tonnes (Q2- 2025 Apr 1 to June 30). Similarly Long Products when from 13,882 tonnes to 34,775 tonnes in the same period.
The tariffs applied had little effect on the price per tonne, with long products going up by $25 and pipe and tube going down $351.
Yes it’s an imperfect comparison, because it’s such a wide category under each grouping.
We hear a lot about the nominal tariffs, but the way tariffs are actuall applied can be convoluted.
If a product goes back and forth across the border, each time it crosses, only the value added is taxed, and that added value is a maleable number since there are numerous ways to determine the ‘value’.
Also, within large companies products may be invoiced at less – or more – than market prices and the difference goes to the corporate bottom line. or is reflected in wink wink nudge nudge adjustments in some less taxed product pricing or service.
These practices are discouraged but as far as I know are commonplace because they are hard and costly to prove – and there are many legitimate ways to justify price in any particular case.
Did it say anything about the steel if it was shaped into a boat that carries cars and passengers? Do you get a loan from the feds to buy it still?
About 15 years ago I bought steel (6 inch flat beam) that was stamped with “product of South Africa”.
I wondered how does this make sense?
Hebei Iron & Steel Group? They are Chinese owned, and in a “cooperative” with the South African government.
“South African co-operative”. Sounds like a rather dark euphemism of some sort, doesn’t it?
Now is when we juxtapose …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_stock_market_crash
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/s-p-500-nasdaq-close-at-record-highs-cap-best-quarter-in-over-a-year/ar-AA1HI9yR
More RECORD HIGH markets today … again.
Steel is formed into a lot of different products and a lot of structural shapes some of which are one-offs and specialized making them uneconomic to produce in some countries so there tends to be specialization and trading of steel shapes between countries according to their supplies and according to their needs.
Just as Canada both exports and imports petroleum products for reasons having to do with the specific product and geography, so Canada and the US have steel coming and going at the same time..
This is consistent with the idea of comparative advantage and specialization and works to everybody’s benefit as long as trade goes smoothly.
However in times of disruption such as wartime this system breaks down and so there’s a balance between efficiency and supply security that’s forever changing as political fortunes shift.
The US sent a lot of its manufacturing overseas to take advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental standards but this can only go so far before a country is unable to produce the essentials at time of conflict or shortages. When disasters strike, and shortages occur, countiries cannot depend on even their customary suppliers to favor them over their own domestic market. Therefore even if it cost more to produce domestically, some things have to be made locally or there’s risk of going without.
Some of our very stupidest are in “charge”.
So the list of excluded countries of origin includes Canada but NOT China.