OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada offered tariff relief on some steel and aluminum products imported from the U.S. and China, a government document showed, in efforts to help domestic businesses battered by a trade war on two fronts.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump, who imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. His team also met with Chinese counterparts last week in an effort to secure relief on Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods.
Canada’s economy has come under strain as the impact of tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S. and China has taken a toll. Carney has rolled back many of the retaliatory tariffs his predecessor imposed on U.S. imports as he tries to strike a deal with Trump.
In an amendment to the surtax remission order of 2024 on Chinese imports, the Ministry of Finance granted remission on some steel and aluminum varieties imported from China that are not produced in Canada, a document issued on Friday showed.
The order came into effect on October 15 and more details regarding the remission order will be published on November 5, the ministry’s communication to the industry showed.
The ministry also exempted from tariffs some U.S. steel and aluminum products primarily linked to public health, national security, manufacturing, agriculture and food packaging, the document said.
“The remission process is to protect people who are in the downstream sector … to deal with exceptional circumstances,” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in remarks to reporters on Monday.
He said these were a group of very specific products that are needed to enter Canada to maintain the supply chains and will not impact much in terms of how much counter-tariffs are being collected.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Mark Porter)
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