WTO to Hear Canada's Retaliatory Tariffs Request

05/06/2015 12:00 - 513 Views

On June 17th, the World Trade Organization will hear Canada's request to impose retaliatory tariffs against the United States.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says that Canada wants to impose over three billion dollars in retaliatory measures against U-S imports, if the Americans do not immediately repeal their mandatory Country of Origin Legislation.

Ritz says a U-S bill will be introduced next week.

"Certainly the House is serious about removing this, and the Senate is as well. It's a matter of lining up their ducks and we'll have to see what the actual piece of legislation looks like when they're done on the floor of the House, whether or not the Senate can adapt it as it is or if they'll want to massage it a little bit," he said. "We have two Senators who are very strong in maintaining the status quo, Senator Stabenow from Wisconsin and of course Senator Peterson, and I'm here to tell them that they're not going to win in the long run. Their states are going to face some stiff tariffication on products trying to come to Canada."

Ritz notes the measures would be applied in the coming months.

"We will be and will retaliate as soon as we have the timeline underscored at the WTO, and we've been assured that that can happen as early as late summer and as late as early fall. We'll certainly work with that timeline. We're hopeful that the Senate will look at this and realize that $4 billion in tariffs does not help their industry, let alone ours or Mexico's."

Canada has put together a retaliatory list consisting of 38 imported products, which are worth over a total of eight billion dollars annually.

Source: swiftcurrentonline.com