Yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Finance, Chris Forbes, hosted a briefing with Canadian industry and labour stakeholders on Canada-United States (U.S.) economic issues. Senior officials from the Embassy of Canada in the U.S., also joined the call.
Deputy Minister Forbes provided an overview of the work to respond to the unjustified U.S. tariffs, as well as the ongoing discussions between Prime Minister Carney and President Trump. This includes the meeting at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, last week, where both leaders agreed to pursue negotiations toward a deal on a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.
The Deputy Minister also outlined the measures announced last week to support and protect Canada's steel and aluminum workers and industries. The government will adjust its existing counter-tariffs on steel and aluminium products on July 21, to levels consistent with progress that has been made in the broader trading arrangement with the U.S.
The Deputy Minister reiterated that the government will also limit access to federal procurements to suppliers from Canada and reliable trading partners that provide reciprocal access, establish new tariff rate quotas to stabilize the domestic market and prevent harmful trade diversion of steel products as the result of U.S. actions, create government-stakeholder task forces to better support the steel aluminum industries and their workers, and adopt additional tariff measures on the basis of "country of melt and pour" for steel and "country of smelt and cast" for aluminum over the coming weeks to address overcapacity and unfair trade in these sectors.
Deputy Minister Forbes reminded stakeholders that a number of business support programs, including the new $10 billion Large Enterprise Tariff Loan facility, remain open to applicants. He also confirmed that the individual remission requests submitted as part of the broader remission framework are currently being assessed.
Finally, the Deputy Minister confirmed that the government remains prepared to take additional steps to support the Canadian steel and aluminum sectors as needed.
