Trump reimposes tariffs on aluminum imports

by sadia_badhon | August 11, 2020 6:58 am

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In a controversial move, President Donald Trump has imposed a 10 percent tariff on unalloyed, unwrought aluminum imports from Canada, effective August 16.

“Once again the Trump Administration has missed the mark in protecting the U.S. aluminum industry. With the entire domestic aluminum industry demanding that China’s unrelenting overproduction of aluminum products come to an end, the administration fires its guns at Canada, one of our critical aluminum trading partners. The only impact from this measure will be increased U.S. aluminum prices, which will only make our manufacturing sector less competitive globally,” said Jeff Henderson, Aluminum Extruders Council[2] (AEC) president.

“With so much uncertainty in the domestic economy, this decision to re-impose tariffs on Canadian aluminum is highly misguided,” said Michael O’Brien, Window and Door Manufacturers Association[3] (WDMA) president. “The COVID pandemic has created severe economic distortions for manufacturers and imposing a tariff will simply increase the cost of a vital material for manufacturing and construction. Further, we are concerned this action will undermine the work accomplished by the [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement] USMCA’s recent implementation, in addition to harming our regional trading relationships. The North American market is a critical sector for window, door, and skylight manufacturing, and we urge the administration to reconsider this decision.”

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/trump-reimposes-tariffs-on-aluminum-imports/

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