OTTAWA – Canada is announcing funding for the country’s smaller steel and aluminum producers as a tariff fight with the US drags on.
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Monday Canada will make available C$100-million in “non-repayable contributions” to small- and medium-sized steel and aluminum manufacturers, or clients of those firms. The funding is aimed at projects that boost productivity or adopt new technology.
Tariffs continue to strain ties between the nations. The US applied levies of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum last year. Canada, the top source for the US of both metals, responded with reciprocal tariffs shortly afterward. Canada is now pushing for both countries to lift the tariffs, whereas the US wants some kind of quota. The impasse threatens passage of the new trade deal between the US, Canada and Mexico.
“In the face of unjust and illegal US tariffs hurting businesses and workers on both sides of the border, our government is standing shoulder to shoulder with our hard-working steel and aluminum workers and the users of their world-class products,” Bains said in a statement.
The funding will be delivered through the country’s regional development agencies. Firms will be eligible for as much as C$1-million, to a maximum of 45% of a project’s cost.
US President Donald Trump boasted about his aluminum tariffs in a tweet on Friday, saying prices are down about 12% since the levies were implemented.
Canada has pushed back against the idea of a quota. “We have said from the beginning we will not accept a hard cap quota on aluminum,” Canada’s ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, said Friday in an email.