Ottawa to seek input before deciding on offshore steel tariffs

The federal government, which has been considering slapping tariffs on steel from offshore amid the trade battle with the United States, will seek input from steel companies and users of the metal before it decides whether to go ahead.

Ottawa will take comments during the next 15 days before deciding whether to put in place a “safeguard action” that would levy tariffs on imports of several types of steel, including plate, pipe, hot-rolled sheet and concrete-reinforcing bar, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said onTuesday...

The World Trade Organization permits what are called “safeguard actions,” that provide temporary protection to domestic industries facing a flood of imports that might cause, or threaten to cause, serious injury to the domestic industry...

The request by the mills in Canada was to block offshore steel to prevent steel makers from other countries shipping steel through Canada to the United States as a means of avoiding U.S. tariffs. Their concern is that offshore steel can be transformed into a product or other material while in Canada that would escape the tariff when it crosses the border. A flood of cheap offshore steel would also dent the profits of Canadian mills.

A safeguard action would also demonstrate to the Americans – once the tariffs are lifted – that Canada will not be a source of a surge of offshore steel that would flow directly or indirectly into the U.S. market, one senior steel industry official said.

Steel user groups, however, warn that actions that prevent foreign steel from entering Canada could lead to job losses... Steel mills in Canada do not have enough capacity to satisfy the demand in Canada for concrete reinforcing bar, known as rebar, and some types of steel plate that are used in construction...

This is excerpted from 14 August 2018 edition of The Globe and Mail.