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Canada is “not a dumping ground and transshipment hub” for low carbon and cheap steel imports, he said.
“We reject that premise,” Desmarais said, noting that clubbing Canada with Mexico led to the imposition of 50% tariffs against steel imports from both countries, despite the steel industries in the two countries operating differently.
Desmarais agreed global steel overcapacity is a threat to the health of North American steel markets, but argued that painting Canada with the same brush as other offenders is unfair.
The global steel overcapacity is more than 600 million metric tons, and another 170 million metric tons of steel capacity will be added in the next three years, Desmarais said.
The Canadian steel supply chain is “highly integrated with the US,” Desmarais said, adding that trade policies in both US and Canada are “rather aligned.”
“When it comes to steel, by any metric or data, Canada is not a dumping ground or gateway to the US market,” Desmarais said. “When you look at the melt and pour dashboard, 95% steel sent to the US from Canada have been melt and poured in the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) region.”
“There’s little foreign steel that transits through Canada, and we have strong measures against Chinese steel imports,” Desmarais said, highlighting the measures taken by the Canadian government in response to the imposition of Section 232 tariffs in 2025.
Canada too has “concerns of transshipment from Mexico,” similar to the US, Desmarais said, adding that he can understand “why the US wants to protect their steel industry.”
“We have an alignment on the views of challenges [the North American steel industry is facing], but do not agree on the measures, and to whom it applies,” Desmarais said.
“Free trade, as long as it is fair, is highly beneficial for everyone. But we see bad actors not play by the rules, which is catastrophic,” Desmarais said.
“For the next several months and years, we will see advanced global economies closing their markets on steel [imports], try to stabilize things, [implement] policies and get results, improve the integrity of their steel markets, and then resume trading among ourselves,” Desmarais said.
Canada tightened the tariff rate quota (TRQ) levels for steel products from non-free trade agreement partners from 50% to 20% of 2024 levels. And for non-USMCA partners with which Canada has a free trade agreement, Canada will reduce tariff rate quota levels for steel products from 100% to 75% of 2024 levels.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney also announced in July 2025 that any steel product that contains steel melted and poured in China will face a separate tariff, unless the product is from the US.
Fastmarkets launched a steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill Canada, on February 5, to accompany its suite of regional HRC prices in the US and Mexico.
After the imposition of Section 232 tariffs, Canada lost approximately 2 million metric tons of steel shipped to the US, compared to 2024, a loss of CAD3.5 billion in a year ($2.58 billion), Desmarais told Fastmarkets on February 6.
The volume of US imports of carbon and alloy steel from Canada fell to its lowest level in six years in January this year, according to data from the US International Trade Administration (ITA).
The US was licensed to import 185,711 tonnes of steel from Canada in January 2026, down by 8.07% from 391,562 tonnes imported in December, and lower by 68.46% from 588,904 tonnes shipped in January 2025.
The ITA figures date back to January 2, 2020, and span different product segments including flat steel products, long steel products, pipe and tube, semi-finished steel and stainless steel.
All the product segments tracked by the ITA logged declines on a year-on-year basis, with the volume of flat and long steel imported to the US from Canada falling by around 70%.
US president Donald Trump’s administration doubled US tariffs on steel, aluminium and their derivative products from 25% to 50% on June 4, 2025, and removed steel tariff exclusions, just a few months after initial tariffs of 25% were set on all steel and aluminium imports on March 12, 2025, under the umbrella of Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act.
Canada imposed counter tariffs in March 2025 on most US imports, but later removed these tariffs in recognition of the US’ approach to allow most Canadian goods to enter the US tariff-free under the USMCA.
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However, Canada’s counter tariffs on imports of steel, aluminium and automotives from the US remain in effect.
Section 232 tariffs have been celebrated by the domestic steelmakers in the US, whose shipments and production increased in the absence of imports competition.
“The single most consequential thing the government has done for the steel industry in decades is the 232 steel tariff,” Steel Manufacturing Association (SMA) executive vice president Brandon Farris said during a news broadcast on Monday February 9. “Over the last year, production was up 300,000 tons in the US.”
Overall raw steel production rose by 3.36% in 2025 compared with 2024, according to data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
The US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA), which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on July 1, 2020, is under review, and will be renegotiated on July 1, 2026, its first joint review on the sixth anniversary of the agreement’s enforcement.
A revamped USMCA will present an opportunity for the three countries to present a united front against the threat of global steel overcapacity, and create a bulwark against China, Desmarais told Fastmarkets.
However, Desmarais expects a “rocky review” process.
“We already had a free trade deal. We thought we had clarity on the trade relationship, but we still got tariffs imposed on us,” Desmarais said.
“My wish is to preserve what we got from the last time around and build on it. We’re likely going to have a rocky review over the next six months, maybe even beyond.”
“At the end of the day, Canada and the US are each other’s closest and most important trading partners,” Desmarais said, adding that, “We believe [that whatever] happens next in [our] trade relationship, we will have an agreement. It is impossible not to trade with each other.”
Like Canada, deeply entrenched supply chains between the US and Mexico makes a complete decoupling very difficult, but stakeholders should be prepared for a much-altered USMCA, experts at a panel discussion on “The State of US-Mexico Relations,” said on February 3.
Steel market participants in the US have been critical of the USMCA, with steelmakers Steel Dynamics Inc, Nucor, Cleveland-Cliffs and US Steel testifying in front of the US Congress in January about the importance of robust trade policies and doubling down on fair trade enforcement.
Additionally, SMA president Phil Bell told delegates at the Fastmarkets Circular Steel Summit 2026 that it is “a privilege, not a right” to trade steel with the US.
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