Mexico City-based Cámara Nacional de la Industria del Hierro y del Acero (Canacero) has joined with the Ottawa-based Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) in calling on the governments of Mexico, Canada and the United States to address the elimination of all trade restrictions on steel and aluminum between North American trading partners as part of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) renegotiations.
“A new and modernized NAFTA will bring great benefits to Mexico, Canada and the United States, and afford the trading partners the opportunity to be able to continue the integration of the regional market,” says Canacero President Máximo Vedoya. “A NAFTA with steel and aluminum tariffs substantially counters the specific [agreement’s] main purpose."
“Through fair and open trade within the NAFTA region Canada, the United States and Mexico are all better positioned to compete and succeed in the global economy,” remarks CSPA President Joseph Galimberti. “The NAFTA renegotiation represents an ideal opportunity to eliminate trade barriers on steel and aluminum within the region to fortify key North American supply chains in energy, industrial, building and manufacturing applications.”
Canacero and the CSPA say they remain committed to actively defending North American markets from unfairly traded global steel imports.
“Steel Producers in Canada, the United States and Mexico have all suffered as the result of unfair trade in steel driven by the problem of global overcapacity,” says Máximo Vedoya.
Adds Galimberti, “Recent Canadian changes to our trade remedy laws, increased resourcing for the Canadian Border Services Agency to better address unfair trade in steel and the initiation of consultations on a global safeguard action are all steps which demonstrate Canada’s commitment to preserving fair trade in steel in the NAFTA region.
Since NAFTA came into force, trade in steel products between NAFTA countries has increased by 117.2 percent, more than doubling, say the two trade groups. “Today the clear majority of North American steel exports are contained within the region – 97 percent of Canadian steel exports are to the United States and Mexico, 90 percent of U.S. steel exports are to Canada and Mexico, and 76 percent of Mexican steel exports are to Canada and the United States,” the groups state.
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