End of United States’ aluminium import tariff on Canada relieves Oswego

Donald Trump’s decision to end the aluminium import tariff on Canada last month seems to have brought in relief to Oswego, as two of the city’s largest businesses were affected by the tariff.

Since aluminium is one of the major sources of daily wages for the people in Oswego, President Donald Trump’s decision to levy a 10 per cent tariff on the metal from Canada badly hit the economy there, said Oswego Port Authority Director William Scriber.

Compared to last year, Oswego has seen much of a loss this year, as imports of aluminium are down by 50 per cent from the same time of the previous year. Till the end of 2017, many aluminium suppliers were under contract to ship the metal to the Port of Oswego, which as a result, protected the city in New York from witnessing an economic upheaval in 2018. But since those contracts were not renewed further in 2018 after the tariff imposed, imports saw a hard time this year and thus, the economy in Oswego.

"I’ve cut my labour force for the ILA, which is a local labour force longshoremen, 50 percent, we’re cutting expenses right now, delaying repairs we normally would have done, projects we would have started here have been delayed until we can generate a more positive revenue stream," Scriber said.

Even though the aluminium tariff on Canada has been removed, Scriber expects no immediate relief because many aluminium suppliers in the US are already locked into contracts to haul the metal by other means.

The Port of Oswego secures a large amount of aluminium because of the Novelis plant that uses the metal to prepare it for building cars, cans, and other end-products. In a statement, Novelis North American Senior Vice President and President Marco Palmieri said, “The tariffs negatively impacted the Oswego plant because it's so closely intertwined with the company's facility in Canada, and the decision to end the tax is an important step.”