The US is dropping plans for a 10% tariff on certain types of Canadian aluminium that President Donald Trump announced just last month.

Aluminum Association president & CEO Tom Dobbins issued the following statement in response to the announcement by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) removing recently reimplemented tariffs on imports of unwrought, or P1020, aluminium from Canada into the United States.

The decision was made after “the United States … determined that trade in non-alloyed, unwrought aluminium is likely to normalise in the last four months of 2020, with imports declining sharply from the surges experienced earlier in the year,” consistent with industry expectations.

“Removing these disruptive and unnecessary tariffs on Canadian aluminium was the right decision for the U.S. aluminium industry and its 162,000 workers. The Aluminum Association and its members support tariff and quota free trade within North America consistent with the recently implemented U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Especially as the industry continues to recover from the worst of the COVID-driven demand disruptions, it is vital that we keep North American aluminium supply chains open and unencumbered,” said Dobbins.

The Aluminum Association, the Aluminium Association of Canada, more than 15 U.S. aluminium industry CEOs, organised labor groups and countless industry groups all support the continued free flow of metal in North America consistent with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Both Canada and the U.S. have shown a strong commitment to trade enforcement by investing in aluminium import monitoring systems. The Aluminum Association and the Aluminium Association of Canada support continued import monitoring throughout the USMCA region including Mexico.