R Krishna Das
If price of Canadian aluminium has anything to do with politics, American President Donald Trump has made it realised.
The re-imposition of 10 percent tariff on Canadian aluminium by Trump is seen less about Canada than about the ensuing elections in the United States.
Canadian aluminium had bestowed sop for Trump to renew his “America First” pledge while visiting a Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio and addressing the workers, recently. The pocket holds the key to his re-election due in November this year.
Trump, by putting “American workers first”, aims to restore supply chains in critical sectors, including electronics, machine tools, shipping, aerospace, automotives, iron and steel.
Like other democracies, politics in the United States also depend on assuaging local interests. With strict curbs on election financing, the American system largely depends on special interests, their lobbyists and their campaign contributions.
One of the aluminium producers, who lobbied for the reinstatement of tariffs (Century Aluminium), has two smelting operations in Kentucky, the home state of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. For, McConnell, who is facing a tough fight for re-election, the tariffs matters more.
The US tariffs would come into effect from August 16 to check what the authorities claimed a 27 percent “surge” in aluminium imports from Canada over the past year that had “threatened to harm domestic aluminium production.”
Meanwhile, Canadian officials pledged retaliation and imposed tariffs on roughly $2.7 billion worth of U.S. aluminium products. The retaliatory tariffs would affect a “broad and extensive” list of American-produced products that includes soda and beer cans, bicycles, golf clubs and washing machines.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland commented that a trade war in the midst of the pandemic would be devastating to both countries, and urged the Trump administration to reconsider.
“In imposing these tariffs, the United States has taken the absurd decision to harm its own people,” Freeland told a news conference.
The election results would endorse how perfect her analysis was!
