[ferro-alloys.com]US Senator Chuck Grassley called Wednesday on the Trump administration to remove Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico before Congress considers legislation to implement an updated trilateral trade agreement among the three countries.

Grassley, an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance committee, and Mike Naig, Iowa's secretary of agriculture, issued a statement Wednesday highlighting trade as a top issue for the state's agricultural industry.

"The Trump administration successfully concluded [US-Mexico-Canada Agreement] negotiations last fall, maintaining access that our agricultural products have enjoyed under NAFTA and securing even more market access for our dairy, poultry, and egg producers. Unfortunately, our producers are unlikely to realize the market access promises of USMCA while the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico remain," Grassley and Naig said.

The US, Canada, and Mexico reached a deal to replace the existing North American Free Trade Agreement in November, but legislators in all three countries must approve a final agreement.

Grassley and Naig noted that as a result of the US decision in June 2018 to impose Section 232 tariffs on Canada and Mexico's metals exports to the US, both countries have introduced their own retaliatory tariffs on US products, including a 20% tariff on US pork exports to Mexico.

"Before Congress considers legislation to implement USMCA, the administration should lift tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from our top two trading partners and secure the elimination of retaliatory tariffs that stand to wipe out gains our farmers have made over the past two and a half decades," the pair stated.

"As one of Iowa's US senators and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is tasked with leading the implementation of USMCA in the Senate, and as the secretary of agriculture for one of the largest pork, dairy, poultry, soybean, corn and cattle-exporting states in the nation, we'll be working all hands on deck to get the job done. But we need the administration to help us pave the way."

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]