Toronto Region Board of Trade Comments on Potential Steel and Aluminium Tariffs

The following is a statement from Giles Gherson, President and CEO of Toronto Region Board of Trade on President Trump’s threatened imposition of 25 per cent steel and aluminum tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States.

“In the wake of U.S. President Trump’s threatened and still looming broad-based tariff threat, continued talk of destabilizing Canada’s economy to coax us to become the 51st State, and now the threatened imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminium, there can be no doubt that immediate action must be taken to shore up our economy and protect Canada’s economic sovereignty.  

The Toronto region’s business community, our members, are telling us that they need some form of certainty, or we will lose investment, production and jobs. And in fact, we already are. After this weekend, there’s high risk the certainty we need will not be forthcoming from the Trump Administration; our leaders must put in place and clearly communicate a plan of action.  

As we wait for this plan, Toronto Region Board of Trade is putting forward an emergency to-do list to address the immediate steel and aluminum tariff threat and prioritize domestic economic issues: 

• Impose strategic and targeted counter-tariffs on U.S. products to protect Canadian steel and aluminium businesses in their home market, and to exert measured economic pressure on U.S. investors, businesses and political leaders. We need to create the conditions, if we can, for a negotiated solution to restore free trade and border predictability as quickly as possible. 
• Provide immediate financial support for Canadian steel and aluminium producers for urgent investments to rejig their product offerings for local and new international customers.  
• Significant investment tax credits are also needed now to fuel a national productivity sprint, driving business investment in cost saving automation and advanced production technologies, where we've fallen far behind.  
• Implement sweeping federal regulatory reform to kickstart and accelerate national energy and critical minerals projects. Institute an approach that 'regulates for growth' across the economy and incorporates a risk lens to quickly lower compliance costs and boost much needed investment.  
• Short circuit more years of reluctant interprovincial horse trading and create a national instrument for regulatory harmonization and/or mutual recognition among provinces for products, services, and labour (particularly for licensed professionals). 
• We have plenty of free trade pacts with Europe and Asia, but what we don't have is any kind of strategic action plan for our generally smaller businesses to take advantage of them. We play, but we don't play to win. Now we need to.

There is little doubt that these crushing steel and aluminium tariffs may be the proverbial canary in the coal mine for a country pitching towards a serious national emergency. We need to move quickly to mitigate the immediate threat while taking action to address Canada’s longstanding competitiveness and productivity weaknesses. If we’re going to be forced to go it alone without our largest trading partner and trusted ally, we urgently need an efficient national economy that reflects the true scale of a top 10 global economy, rather than the current costly fragmentation.”