Quebec aluminium producer said tariffs cut into profits but did not affect production

Patrice L’Huillier, CEO of Aluminerie Alouette, located at about 550 km northeast of Quebec City said that American tariffs on Canadian aluminium cut into profits but didn’t affect production or employment. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the plant after the lifting of tariffs on Canadian aluminium. He also added that the trade dispute with the US actually helped them resist the influx of aluminium from China to Canada.

“We will die from the overflow of Chinese aluminum,” said L’Huillier. “The tariff was not a good thing but to control the metal flow and to understand the source of the metal … is quite a good idea.”

L’Huillier expressed his concern about how Chinese metals are illegally entering the international markets eating up their shares. While China produced 36 million tonnes of aluminium last year Canada produced about three million tonnes.

He said the tariffs have formalised the tracking process of aluminium flow to North America. The new trade agreement says the U.S. and Canada will establish a process for monitoring the steel and aluminium trade between them and Canada will work towards stopping the flow of Chinese aluminium to Canada.

Prime Minister Trudeau said that Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on American goods played a key role in restoring free trade between the two countries.

L’Huillier said his company shipped more of its products to Europe instead of the U.S. after the tariffs, which added logistic costs of shipping aluminium across the Atlantic.

“We didn’t decrease production volumes, we didn’t remove jobs – in that way there was no direct impact,” L’Huillier said in an interview following his meeting with Trudeau. “But I think the tariffs, it’s more of an indirect, long-term impact if these taxes were not removed.”

Trudeau said that lifting of tariffs has cleared the route towards implementation of USMCA.

“With the full lift of the steel and aluminum tariffs, the last major barrier against ratification has been taken away – on both sides, because it was also a barrier to the American ratification process,” Trudeau said.