Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister dismisses calls to drop steel tariffs against US

Candadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has dismissed calls from the Ontario provincial government to drop steel tariffs levied against the U.S.

"I think that is a rotten negotiating strategy. Unilateral surrender tends not to produce great results," Freeland told the Canadian radio station CBC Radio One.

The U.S. announced tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on imported aluminum last May. Canada moved quickly to impose retaliatory tariffs, but the federal Liberal government faced criticism last fall for signing a new North American trade pact, which includes the U.S., without securing any guarantees from Washington that it would lift the levies.

Freeland acknowledged that the retaliatory tariffs, imposed last July, were "lose-lose", but insisted they were "the right thing to do."

"When the U.S. imposed these illegal and unjustified tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, it was important for Canada to respond, and we did," she said.

Source: CBC, photo: fotolia