To get a sense of the disbelief gripping Canadian manufacturers since the U.S. imposed metal import tariffs, have a chat with Marc Dutil. “I just want to scream,” the chief executive officer of structural-steel maker Canam Group Inc. said Friday by phone. “All this is doing is creating uncertainty. It’s the last thing we needed.”
Canam, ironically, is bidding for work on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, the new structure planned to connect Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
“In theory, the bridge is supposed to stand for the close relationship between our two countries,” Dutil said. “It’s supposed to be built with North American steel, but that steel will be taxed. I can’t see how that will help the economy.”
The span would be built in a corridor that carries $100 billion in commerce annually, according to owners of the existing Ambassador Bridge, a figure just shy of U.S. trade with all of the U.K.
‘Troubling Development’
On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the U.S. would levy new duties on metal imports from Canada, the European Union and Mexico, ending temporary exemptions. The levies of 10 percent on aluminum and 25 percent on steel, which are predicated on national security considerations, sent Canadian producers of everything from oil to farm equipment reeling.
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