Aluminum Makers in Canada Could Duck Trump’s Fresh Tariff
- Door is still open for more shipments of finished products
- Recovering economy will drive demand for value-added goods
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Donald Trump just went back on the offensive with Canada, reviving a tariff on the country’s aluminum shipments. But thanks to some oddities in the metal market, producers in the Great White North could escape without incurring a full blow from the duty.
The freshly reinstated fees only apply to raw metal. That leaves the door open for U.S. companies to import some of Canada’s products made from aluminum -- pieces that go into auto parts, jet bodies and machinery -- free of duties. The loophole could be especially relevant now that many analysts expect that the economy is past its trough, meaning demand for the value-added parts is only expected to increase in the months ahead.