‘We need to put an end to this uncertainty,’ Premier Francois Legault said in a social media post Sunday
Canada should try to accelerate the renegotiation of the North American trade agreement, Quebec’s premier said, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to put 25% tariffs on all U.S. steel and aluminum imports.
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“We need to put an end to this uncertainty,” Premier Francois Legault said in a social media post Sunday, shortly after Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he’ll be announcing metals tariffs on “everybody”.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump signed during his first term as president is due to be reviewed next year. But with Trump already threatening broad tariffs against the U.S.’s two neighbors, there are some within Canada who want to speed up those talks.
“All this shows is that we need to start renegotiating our free-trade agreement with the U.S. as soon as possible, and not wait for the review scheduled for 2026,” Legault wrote.
Canada, Mexico, Brazil and South Korea are the U.S.’s largest foreign steel suppliers. Canada is the largest external supplier of aluminum, producing more than half of U.S. imports of the metal, which is used in aircraft, electronics, construction, packaging and other products.
Quebec, Canada’s second most populous province with 9 million people, is the center of the country’s aluminum industry, making about 2.9 million tons a year. Production is led by two industry powerhouses — Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Corp. and London-based Rio Tinto Plc.
Trump pledged on Feb. 3 to hold off on tariffs against Canada and Mexico for 30 days after those two countries announced moves to improve border security.
“The best we can hope for is a relatively rapid and intense start to USMCA renegotiations,” Ian de Verteuil, a strategist at CIBC Capital Markets, said in an email to clients. “As we have said in the past, the threat of tariffs by the Americans is often as effective as tariffs themselves – it makes investing in Canada and Canadian equities riskier.”
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