Washington (AFP)

Washington played the appeasement card with Canada by announcing Tuesday the withdrawal of tariffs of 10% on Canadian aluminum at the same time as its historic ally was preparing to apply retaliatory measures.

"After consulting with the Canadian government, the United States takes note that trade in unalloyed crude aluminum is expected to normalize in the last four months of 2020, with imports falling sharply from leaps recorded earlier in the year. year, "argued the services of the US Trade Representative (USTR).

Based on these expectations, Washington has therefore decided to re-apply the principle of free trade, that is to say without customs duties, which governs trade between the two countries, and this, retroactively. to September 1.

Canada announced on August 7 its intention to impose "countermeasures" of 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (2.3 billion euros), in reaction to Donald Trump's decision to reimpose tariffs 10% on Canadian aluminum.

The trade retaliation was due to go into effect this week.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, was indeed to announce Tuesday afternoon the list of taxed American products.

For his part, before the announcement of the American about-face, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had described Tuesday as "unfair" the American customs duties, imposed in the name of "national security" of the United States.

"We are going to defend our aluminum sector," he promised as the industry employs 10,000 workers in the country.

His Deputy Prime Minister, architect of the new free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, had, in August, deemed "absurd" this decision and denounced "unjustified tariffs".

"For every dollar imposed by the United States on Canadian imports, we will impose in return an equivalent tax", then threatened.

The Canadian government had not yet reacted to the new American decision.

- Threat -

Average monthly imports are expected to fall by 50% from the January through July monthly average, the USTR said on Tuesday.

The Trump administration has not completely lifted the threat of potential tariffs on aluminum, however.

If Canadian exports were to exceed 105% of the expected volume for any month during the four-month period, then Washington will retroactively impose tariffs of 10% on all exports made during that month, the Lease said. Trump administration.

And if they exceed the planned volume, they will have to decrease by as much the following month, she added.

Canadian aluminum has long poisoned trade relations between the two countries.

This file even ignited the powder in June 2018 when Donald Trump announced tariffs on this matter, arousing the consternation of his historic ally.

The host of the White House then intended to put pressure on Canada to accelerate negotiations for a new agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (Alena).

Then, in May 2019, he renounced these punitive customs duties.

Last August, the Republican president justified the imposition of new customs duties by an exponential increase in Canadian aluminum imports into the United States.

Between June 2019 and May 2020, they increased by 87% compared to the previous twelve months, he then detailed.

This surge in imports "threatens American aluminum production," said Donald Trump.

© 2020 AFP