FIXING WHAT ISN'T BROKEN

The ideal on trade is that another country has something we want and we have something they want so we exchange our product(s) for theirs.  A good example is Canada where we want their raw steel and aluminum and they want our services.  We even fabricate steel and aluminum into value-added products, some of which we sell to Canada.  In fact, we got the better end of this deal because we have a slight trading surplus with Canada.

But we (i.e. our President) then imposed tariffs on Canada raw steel and aluminum to subsidize our steel industries presumably for national security.  Canada a danger to national security?   Good, grief.  What a misuse of authority.

STEEL
But consider, in 2016 Canada produced 12.6 million tons of steel total whereas America produced 83 million tons.  And Canada is ruining our steel industry?  Any two months steel production in the U.S. exceeded the entire yearly steel production of Canada!  Furthermore, the U.S. exports iron ore to Canada to be made into raw steel!

Now get this:
Canada imported 7.1 million tonnes of iron ore (valued at $0.6 billion) in 2016, up from 6.6 million tonnes in 2015. Most of these imports (98.5%) were in the form of pellets from the United States. The balance (1.5%) was in the form of concentrates from Argentina (71.0%), the United States (19.1%) and Sweden (9.1%). Concentrates are unfinished products used in the production of blast furnace pellets and pellets used for metallization.*

Through the courtesy of the steel tariffs, our socialized steel production is up in 2018

ALUMINUM
In contrast to steel, America imports the largest amount of aluminum from Canada (with China second).  In 2017, 87.2% of Canadian aluminum exports went to the U.S.  Neither America nor Canada has any bauxite (aluminum ore) so the ore must be 100% imported for each country.  Canada can produce aluminum cheaper than in the U.S. because of abundant hydropower in Quebec, Canada.

OTHER
Steel and aluminum aren't the only things impacted by tariffs between the U.
S. and Canada.  Canada has a tariff of 270% (!) on American milk and Trump put a 20% tariff on Canadian softwood lumber used in the housing industry.  There are estimates that the lumber tariff is increasing the cost of building a new single-family house by $9,000 and a multi-family unit at $3,000.***

The milk subsidy tariff figure is biased because the U.S. government subsidizes the American milk industry to the tune of $20 billion or 73% of the cost of milk production.****  Also, the Canadian tariff only applies to filtered whole milk and not other milk products like powdered milk.  thus we would be doing what is called "dumping" of milk on the Canadians without a tariff, i.e. selling Canada milk below cost.  We in America sure didn't like it when China shipped us steel below cost.

I don't know how Trump can justify a tariff on Canadian assembled automobiles.  There must come a point where claims of national security threats become an even great tragic joke.  There must be a way to stop this.  As it is, the U.S. trade war with Canada is a threat to American security.

The poor American consumer to say nothing about the Canadian consumer, but at least Putin is happy what with all this discord and Trump is happily bullying Canada (as well as Mexico?).

* http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/mining-materials/facts/iron-ore/20517
** https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/mining-materials/facts/aluminum/20510
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-canada-trump-tariffs-20180303-story.html
*** https://globalnews.ca/news/4293847/tariffs-lumber-pricing-americans-out-of-housing-market-trump/
**** https://www.realagriculture.com/2018/02/u-s-dairy-subsidies-equal-73-percent-of-producer-returns-says-new-report/