This is a movement that could transform North America.
At the beginning of this month, US President Donald Trump announced Tariffs for all steel and aluminum products coming to the USA from anywhere, including Canada.
This means that each time every Canadian steel or aluminum crosses 49. Paralela, the exporter will have to spend 25 percent of the US government – In addition to another 25 percent If Trump was threatened well that all goods from Canada are celebrating.
Here are nine charts that put metal trade between the USA and Canada in the perspective.
Like many Canadian products, the vast majority of steel exports and aluminum go to the USA, how hard is this relying? Only in December 2024 Stal over a billion dollars was associated with the United States, most of the exports came from Ontario. Aluminum is also an export of a billion dollars, and most leave Quebec.
Trump's goal in imposing tariffs is the demand for the demand for foreign goods and help in stimulating domestic production in the US, as a result of which the demand for Canadian products in the US would fall and probably would lead to losing work here at home, especially in Quebec and Ontario.
“If we do it in the United States, we don't have to do it in Canada. We will have a job, which is why Canada should be our 51. ” Trump said.
Statistics Canada data shows that about 5,000 jobs in the steel sector are located in Hamilton, Ont., House of Stelco Inc. and ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc. Another 2400 employees in Toronto.
These are large numbers, but they are also large city centers with different labor force. There are 2,400 steel employees in the steel Step. Marie, Ont., Medium -sized city with a total population below 80,000, so significant loss of work It would be more felt.
While employees from Ontario stood would feel the burden of all serious dismissals, the data show that Canadians throughout the country are employed by the steel industry.
As for aluminum, almost 3,000 people are employed in the aluminum industry in Saguenay, Que., Sam, home to the Rio Tinto production plant. Other economic regions in Quebec would also affect, including Trois-Rivières, Września and Baie-Comeau.
Let's look at the tariffs from the US perspective. Canada is a key trading partner for the USA and the best foreign supplier of steel and aluminum in the USA, before China and Mexico.
Canadian steel and aluminum are component blocks for a huge swath of consumer goods, including cars, cans and equipment.
To understand the influence on the US, we only need to reverse the clock to 2018, the year in which Trump has recently imposed Similar tariffs. After the introduction of these funds A report Published by the National Bureau of Economic Resears, it was found that the 2018 tariffs “neither raised or reduced employment in the US in newly protected sectors”, but it was found that “retaliation tariffs had a clear negative impact on employment.” US trade committee report Steel and aluminum prices were found as a result of tariffs. These tariffs were scrapped in 2019.
The Canada government still has to reveal how it reacts, and if it imposes retaliation tariffs.
“If this happens, our answer will of course be strong and bright. We will defend Canadian employees. We will defend the Canadian industries, “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau He said last week.
At the moment, Canada and the USA have almost reciditorial trade relations of Steel. In 2024, according to data from the American office of the population, almost $ 13 billion in steel and iron went to the USA from Canada, and just over $ 11 billion.
However, the gap between import and aluminum exports is huge. The United States introduces more than three times more than exports to Canada, emphasizing how much the supply chain between the two countries is aluminum from Canada.
The protectiveist tariffs proposed by Trump could have a seismic influence on the steel and aluminum industries and its workforce in Canada. Let's consider, however, that the three categories affected by the tariff accounted for about 4.5 percent of complete exports from Canada in December 2024.
The White House said that steel and aluminum tariffs will become effective on March 12.
Meanwhile, Canada holds his breath, waiting for checking if Trump is taking a separate threat to impose a 25 -percent tariff on all Canadian goods.