(Washington/Ottawa) The U.S. government announced on Wednesday (November 26) that it would extend tariff exemptions for some Chinese industrial and medical imports for another year. The original exemption period was set to expire this Saturday (November 29).
The extended exemptions cover 14 product categories related to solar product manufacturing equipment and 164 categories encompassing a wide range of industrial and medical products, including electric motors, blood pressure monitoring devices, pump assemblies, automotive air compressors, and printed circuit boards. This is part of the trade truce agreement reached between the US and China earlier this month.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the U.S. is extending the exemption period after the White House announced on March 1 that President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had reached a historic trade and economic agreement.
In addition, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday that new tariffs would be imposed on a range of steel products, including many made in the United States. Canada stated that this was to protect its domestic steel industry, which has been severely impacted by the trade war and the influx of cheap Chinese steel.
Carney said a new 25% tariff will be imposed on steel-derived products. The new tariff will take effect on December 26 and will cover approximately C$10 billion (about S$9.24 billion) worth of imported products, including wind towers, prefabricated buildings, fasteners and wires.
According to Bloomberg, a Canadian official revealed that about 40% of the items on the list are typically imported from the United States.
This is the first time Carney has imposed new import duties on U.S. products since he lifted most of Canada's retaliatory tariffs in September.
Carney emphasized at a press conference on Wednesday that these measures were not intended to pressure the Trump administration. He said, "This is not targeting the United States; it's a global policy aimed at creating some market space for Canadian steel producers."
Canada's steel industry contributes over C$4 billion to the country's GDP and employs at least 23,000 people. Following Trump's imposition of a 50% tariff on Canadian steel imports, the steel industry was one of the two sectors most severely affected.
Carney said on the same day that trade negotiations between Canada and the United States have not yet resumed, and Canada is ready to participate in the negotiations at any time.