Bad neighbors

20 December 2017 By Gina Chon Follow @GinaChon

Trump threatened China and Mexico with tariffs, but the real levies hit Canadian lumber and Bombardier jets. While Ottawa is pushing other trade deals, America is its biggest export market. Souring NAFTA talks and fights over dairy, wine and paper make it the chief target.

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The sixth round of renegotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement will take place in January 2018 in Montreal. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in November that he is concerned about “the lack of headway” after the last round of talks in Mexico. “Thus far, we have seen no evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement,” he said. “Absent rebalancing, we will not reach a satisfactory result.”

Separately in October, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed an 80 percent tariff on imports of the Bombardier C Series passenger jets in an anti-dumping case brought by Boeing. That’s on top of duties of 220 percent that were imposed in an anti-subsidy case in September.

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