After brief trade truce, US slaps levy on Canadian aluminum

WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than two years of browbeating and trade sanctions on Canada and Mexico, President Donald Trump strong-armed the United States’ neighbors into agreeing to supplant a 25-year-old North American trade agreement with one of his own.

His pact, meant to update the old deal and encourage more manufacturing in the United States, was expected to restore clarity and predictability to the rules governing $1.4 trillion in annual in U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico.

The tranquility didn’t last long.

A little more than a month after Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement took effect July 1, the Trump administration is scheduled to re-impose a 10% import tax on Canadian aluminum Sunday, raising tensions between the two allies.

Trump accuses Canada of flooding the U.S. market with its raw, unprocessed aluminum. The Aluminum Association, which represents U.S. and foreign aluminum companies and opposes the tariffs, counters that a jump in Canadian raw aluminum shipments to the United States is within historical norms and reflects stepped-up production from a Canadian smelter that had been shut down by a labor dispute.

“Our hope is that the administration will reconsider this decision,’’ Kirsten Hillman, Canadian ambassador to the United States, said in an interview. The Canadians are poised to retaliate with tariffs on U.S. aluminum and other products.

Trump’s re-imposed tariffs will raise costs for automakers and other U.S. manufacturers that use imported aluminum in their products. As a result, Hillman said, “it’s going to be more expensive to buy a car or a truck or to buy parts for your car.’’

In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs on aluminum imports — Canada’s included. He contended that imports threatened to put U.S. aluminum...