The federal government is offering $500 million in loan guarantees to Canada’s softwood lumber industry and placing limits on imported foreign steel as the two sectors reel from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday.Ottawa is cutting steel import quotas for countries that do not have a free trade agreement with Canada from 50 per cent to 20 per cent of last year’s levels.
And countries outside the United States and Mexico that do have trade pacts with Canada will also see their quotas dropped from 100 per cent to 75 per cent of last year’s levels. “This will open up more than $850 million in new domestic demand for Canadian steel,” Carney said.
Any steel imported above those thresholds will be hit with a surtax of 50 per cent.
Canada will also impose “a global 25 per cent tariff on targeted imported steel derivative products, such as wind towers, prefabricated buildings, fasteners and wires to grow demand for Canadian made steel.”
In July, Carney reduced the quota for imports from countries without free trade agreements to 50 per cent of 2024 levels.
Ottawa is also cutting freight rates for transporting Canadian steel across provinces by 50 per cent. “We’ll do that through funding directly Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railways,” Carney said.
The loan guarantee for softwood lumber will “ensure that companies have the financing and the credit support that they need to maintain and restructure their operations during this period of transformation,” Carney said. The prime minister also announced a new “Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force” that will seek recommendations from provinces, territories and the lumber industry on “how to seize new opportunities in softwood lumber and create new growth in the sector.” When asked if Canada’s new duties could hamper the chances of a free trade agreement with the U.S., Carney said the U.S. and Mexico are “not included” in the list of trading partners that would be affected.He added that Canada’s curbs on steel derivative imports are not as broad as those imposed by the U.S. … Source: globalnews.ca/news
