“CUSMA will help strengthen Canada’s relationship with its main trading partner, the United States,” said Jean Simard, President and CEO of the Aluminium Association of Canada. “The agreement will bring significant benefits to the Canadian economy as a whole and to our industry.”
Canada is a key aluminium supplier in the global sector with 90% of its aluminium production shipped outside. Canada reiterated its support for CUSMA from the beginning till the implementation stage. He said the deal will provide a proper framework for the trade between the three countries and modernize their business relationships.
He also applauded Trudeau’s Government for recognizing the importance of the aluminium sector in the North American industrial economy like never before.
The Association urged all parliamentarians to vote for the ratification of CUSMA and to facilitate its passage smoothly. The CUSMA will allow the North American aluminium industry to work within this framework with governments on the issue of unfair competition and illegitimate dumping of subsidized aluminium products onto the continent.
He also mentioned modern tools such as the Canadian import surveillance model, “ICL”, implemented by Ms Freeland and her team in record time last summer which will monitor imports of aluminium products into Canada.
The industry also intends to initiate discussions with the government to encourage Mexico to implement a similar measure to limit the entry of products that do not comply with the trade rules. The Canadian industry acknowledged the importance of free trade and offered its support to Government of Canada to implement fair trade between trade partners.