TradeLane

The dynamics of trade are changing.

Perhaps this is nothing new, trade has always evolved and changed, but I think we would be hard pressed to find an instance in modern peacetime when trade has been asked to adapt so quickly. TPP, Brexit, NAFTA, and steel tariffs, which would have been the biggest stories just months ago, are now muffled background noise to the rhetoric of a Trade War between two of the world’s most important economies.

While we wait for the US Administration to work out details on any potential trade deal with the EU, Turkey has moved to the forefront.

Section 232 steel duties on goods produced in Turkey will be doubled to 50% effective August 13^th  with an increase for aluminum duties to 20% still pending. Automobile and automobile parts duty increases are still being contemplated. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been instructed to begin collecting Section 301 duties on 818 products of China origin at the rate of 25% effective July 6^th.

The total value of the targeted goods is $50 billion.

List 1, which was implemented on July 6^th, is valued at $34 billion and the second list of products is expected to hit importers once the comment period ends.  List 2 is valued at approximately $16 billion. 

On May 31st, the Canadian Department of Finance issued a notice of intent to impose tariffs on certain product of US origin imported into Canada. I usually impart some humour into my blogs or attempt to at least, however these are some pretty significant and serious countermeasures.

It was June 2007 when we first started hearing talk of the possibility of a trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. With the European Union being one of Canada’s largest trade partners, second only to the United States, many importers have been eagerly awaiting this trade agreement to become a reality. 

At last, on September 21, 2017, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) was provisionally implemented.