Late last Friday, the United States announced it would lift steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The U.S. and Canada released a joint statement announcing the end of the tariffs that have been in place since March 2018, hinting at an agreement in sight for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

According to the statement, the U.S. and Canada will implement measures to:

• Prevent the importation of aluminum and steel that is unfairly subsidized and/or sold at dumped prices; and
• Prevent the transshipment of aluminum and steel made outside of Canada or the United States to the other country. Canada and the United States will consult together on these measures.

Additionally, the statement also reads, in part, “in the event that imports of aluminum or steel products surge meaningfully beyond historic volumes of trade over a period of time, with consideration of market share, the importing country may request consultations with the exporting country. After such consultations, the importing party may impose duties of 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum in respect to the individual product(s) where the surge took place (on the basis of the individual product categories set forth in the attached chart). If the importing party takes such action, the exporting country agrees to retaliate only in the affected sector (i.e., aluminum and aluminum-containing products or steel).”

On Sunday, CBP published CSMS #19-000252 containing additional information regarding the new tariff policy. As of 12:01 AM EST today, May 20, “the Section 232 duty on imports of steel and aluminum articles with a country of origin of Canada or Mexico will no longer be in effect.”

Trans-Border will continue to monitor the situation. If you have any questions, please reach out to Bill Carey, Import Compliance Manager, at bcarey@tbgfs.com or (800) 493-9444.