Amidst the countdown to U.S. tariffs, steel producers decry 'dumped steel' in Canada
In the midst of United States President Donald Trump‘s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from all countries beginning next month, a consensus in Canada is emerging that parts of this country’s trade policy regarding metals are broken.
For one thing, Canada is a dumping ground for other countries’ cheap steel, Catherine Cobden, chief executive of the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA), said.
Dumping is when a foreign company sells a product into another country at an artificially low price, and it can violate World Trade Organization rules. There are also rules about foreign companies exporting products that are priced lower because of government subsidies.
In the past decade, the percentage of offshore steel — meaning from outside North America — consumed in Canada has doubled to around 38 per cent of the overall market, up from 19 per cent in 2013, according to Statistics Canada data supplied by the CSPA.
“We have seen a steady increase in dumped steel,” Cobden said. “This has been a steady build for five to seven years.”
She is urging policymakers to quickly address the situation so there’s less dumped offshore steel in Canada.
Complaints about either dumping or other unfair trade practices are handled by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, which can provide remedies such as anti-dumping duties.
But Cobden and others said the process to obtain such a remedy is time-consuming, expensive and sometimes ineffective.
Currently, 53 metal products — from extruded aluminum to cold-rolled steel to copper wire — are subject to anti-dumping or countervailing measures in Canada.
Some of the cases date back years, and companies from a long list of countries, including China, Mexico,
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