Ottawa gives billion-dollar lifeline to steel and aluminum sectors as Trump tightens tariffs
Posted on: May 01, 2025 13:31 IST | Posted by: Cbc
The federal soldier regime proclaimed on mon another bundle to prop up the hard-hit steel, aluminum and copper sectors after U.S. President Donald Trump tightened his tariff regime to apply to more products, hammering Canadian industry.
At a plant in Vars, Ont., Industry Minister Melanie Joly said the government will establish a $1-billion loan program through the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) so companies most affected by the Trump scheme can get the money they need to stay in business.
There will be a separate $500-million fund that gives money to companies making what the government calls "strategic pivots," as the U.S. Market for some of these products becomes increasingly untenable.
These measures follow other government manoeuvres to save sectors grappling with Trump's so-called 232 tariffs on industrial products — levies the Canadian government is trying to negotiate away as part of the CUSMA review talks.
The government has already imposed tariffs on some Chinese steel to reduce foreign competition and rolled out a $5-billion strategic response fund, among other initiatives.
The government says this new package is needed now because Trump extended the steel, aluminum and copper levies last month to apply to more products, including previously exempt derivatives like steel coils and aluminum sheets. As a result, Canadian tool and mould makers are suddenly facing huge customs bills at the border.
Asked if today's announcement is a sign Ottawa believes the U.S. Tariffs are here to stay, Joly said: "You don't know. I don't know. This is not up to us to answer. These decisions will be taken south of the border. But we don't just sit idle waiting for things to happen — we act," she said.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump's point person on the trade negotiations with Canada, warned late last month that the administration is wedded to tariffs and things will not go back to how they were.
"The president's not gonna go back to the old situation where we had no tariffs and we just let foreign goods made by foreign workers come in without any fee," Greer said.
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