The federal government will remove its 25 per cent counter-tariff on some (roughly half) of the U.S. goods it targeted in March, as Canada aims to reset trade relations with Washington, according to Canadian Black Book and CBC News.
The removal will come into effect on September 1 and will apply to certain goods that comply with the North American free-trade pact. But levies on steel, aluminum, and autos will remain.
“Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last Friday that Canada will drop some retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products to match American tariff exemptions for goods covered under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, called CUSMA,” said CBC News in its report.
The media outlet said Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is in Washington this week, along with Canada’s Chief of Staff Marc-André Blanchard and Michael Sabia, the clerk of the Privy Council. Based on an interview, CBC said Carney (or the government) is focused on the “sectoral tariffs the U.S. has implemented”, primarily steel, softwood, aluminum and autos.
According to CBC, Carney told reporters “Those are the areas we are focused on improving the outcomes if we can. And in order to do that … we’ll have to look at other areas where we can have win-win co-operation.”
The prime minister will visit Mexico in September to discuss trade relations.
