US agrees to WTO consultations with Canada on steel, aluminium tariffs

The US has agreed to hold consultations with Canada at the WTO on its complaint over 25 per cent duties imposed by the Trump regime on all steel and aluminum imports, according to recent WTO submissions made by the country...The US-Canada talks will be of interest to the country as New Delhi had approached the WTO when similar duties were imposed by Trump in 2018 during his first term and it may be an alternative to be kept alive.

On March 12, US President Donal Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on imports of all steel and aluminium to limit imports and boost production domestically. These duties threaten an estimated $5 billion worth of engineering goods and almost $1 billion worth of aluminium exports to the US from India. The Canada and the EU immediately announced counter tariffs on US goods expected to be imported worth $20.7 billion and $28 billion respectively.

Canada then filed a complaint at the WTO seeking consultations with the US on its move which it said was inconsistent with US obligations under the multilateral body. On March 12, while Trump removed all earlier duty exemptions and increased duties on aluminium to 25 per cent from the earlier 10 per cent. But India did not re-impose its retaliatory duties on the eight items that it had removed. India and the US have said that they would negotiate the first tranche of the BTA by Fall this year but New Delhi is hopeful that it could reach some sort of an arrangement before that which would put off the reciprocal tariffs threated by Trump on April 2.