Canadian Foreign Minister Says World Is United Against Aluminum, Steel Tariffs
Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, in Washington to receive an honor from the Foreign Policy publications group as diplomat of the year, took the opportunity to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer June 14. While NAFTA negotiations will continue intensively over the summer, she said, most of the hourlong meeting was about tariffs -- both those imposed by the U.S. and the Canadian dollar-for-dollar response.
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Freeland told reporters, "These are illegal tariffs and Canada has no choice, much more in sorrow than in anger, to respond." She said Canada's list was coordinated with allies, both in Europe and with Mexico. She noted that the EU, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Norway have all filed cases at the World Trade Organization, and all say that national security is a pretext for the 25 percent tariff on steel and the 10 percent tariff on aluminum. They say the U.S. did not follow its WTO obligations in documenting the need for safeguard tariffs for those industries, nor did it provide the kind of notice required for safeguard tariffs. "This a measure taken against the world. And the world community ... is united in its response," Freeland said.