President Trump made the announcement that steel and aluminum tariffs have been lifted on Canada and Mexico. This is one step closer to getting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed.
The official announcement came during a meeting with the National Association of Realtors. President Trump said, “I’m pleased to announce that we’ve just reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico and will be selling our product into those countries without the imposition of tariffs or major tariffs. As you know, Canada has been for years, and we have a great relationship with Canada and the Prime Minister, we have a great relationship, but they’ve been charging us extremely high tariffs, as much as 285% or more for our agricultural products, which is an absolute barrier, essentially a barrier, so it was a barrier to our farmers being able to do business with them, to our farmers being able to sell product in there, so that deal is going to be a fantastic deal for our country, and hopefully Congress will approve the USMCA quickly and then the great farmers and manufacturers and steel plants will make our economy even more successful than it already is.”
After the announcement, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said, “Today’s announcement is a big win for American agriculture and the economy as a whole. I thank President Trump for negotiating a great deal and for negotiating the removal of these tariffs. Canada and Mexico are two of our top three trading partners, and it is my expectation that they will immediately pull back their retaliatory tariffs against our agricultural products. Congress should move swiftly to ratify the USMCA so American farmers can begin to benefit from the agreement.”
The United State Trade Representative said, “The agreement provides for aggressive monitoring and a mechanism to prevent surges in imports of steel and aluminum. If surges in imports of specific steel and aluminum products occur, the United States may re-impose Section 232 tariffs on those products. Any retaliation by Canada and Mexico would then be limited to steel and aluminum products. This agreement is great news for American farmers that have been subject to retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico. At the same time, the Agreement will continue to protect America’s steel and aluminum industries.”
