The duties imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump on aluminum and steel, in addition to hitting China, could damage one of the main allies of the United States: Canada. The duties on imports of the two metals, announced at the beginning of the month by the Commerce Department, will eventually be confirmed by the president by mid-April, involving Canada, which has always been a supplier of metals to the US industry and defense. like other exporting countries: the UK, Australia, South Korea and others. Trump could choose, according to the newspaper "New York Times", to adopt corrective measures in order not to exacerbate the already tense relations with Ottawa due to the Free Trade Treaty with the countries of North America (NAFTA) and the US tariffs on timber Canadian. Tensions, in the case of timber, have led to the Canadian government having recourse to the ruling of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Concerns that prompted US Defense Secretary James Mattis to write a public letter in which, while acknowledging that unfair commercial practices are a threat to national security, he recommends the administration to be cautious of allies, rather by applying duties against of specific countries and agreeing on the problem of Chinese superproduction. More than half of US aluminum imports came from Canada in 2016, followed at a distance by those from Russia and the United Arab Emirates. US steel imports in 2016-2017 came from Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey. China is not among the top ten exporters of the two metals to the United States.
