@shecanuck

🇨🇦 TRUMP PUT A 50% TARIFF ON CANADIAN ALUMINUM. NOW CANADA IS SELLING MORE TO EUROPE, AND AMERICANS ARE PAYING MORE. There’s just one problem with trying to make America less dependent on Canadian aluminum. America doesn’t produce nearly enough aluminum to meet its own needs. Canada has long supplied most American imports of primary aluminum. Our hydroelectric-powered smelters produce a metal essential to U.S. automobiles, aircraft, construction and manufacturing. Trump’s tariffs were supposed to strengthen American industry. Instead, American manufacturers are confronting soaring aluminum premiums while rebuilding domestic production remains enormously expensive and time-consuming. Meanwhile, something rather inconvenient is happening for Washington. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, Canadian aluminum shipments to Europe have increased 77% year over year through August. Think about what that means. America is making Canadian aluminum more expensive for American businesses while encouraging Canadian producers to develop relationships with customers elsewhere. And those relationships may outlast the tariffs themselves. There’s nothing wrong with America wanting greater industrial independence. Canada should be pursuing the same objective. But creating domestic production capacity takes years, enormous investment and affordable electricity. Tariffs don’t magically produce any of those things. So if Americans are paying more for aluminum while Canadians are finding new customers, who exactly is becoming less dependent on whom?