The city council of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario urged the World Trade Organization this week to sanction trade remedies to prevent illegal steel dumping on support of local steelmakers Essar Steel Algoma and Tenaris Canada.
The request passed a resolution offering support to the Canadian steel industry by opposing a request that British Columbia to be exempted from antidumping and countervailing duties on illegally imported rebar.
“Antidumping and countervailing duties serve to restore market-based competition in Canada by eliminating market distortions and consequent injury to domestic producers,” said Essar’s president and CEO Kalynan Ghosh in a letter to Mayor Christian Provenzano.
“Allowing this kind of patchwork trade remedy system would be a slippery slope, opening the potential for similar claims in future from other regions and for other Canadian industrial products,” the letter continued. “A regional exemption could impact findings against plate and hot rolled sheet, leading to unfair competition and economic harm for Essar Algoma and the City of Sault Ste. Marie.”
In a letter from Tenaris, vice president David McHattie said if an exclusion were granted on any of the three open trade cases supporting Tenaris products, it would have a materially negative impact on the company.