FRANCE 24’s François Picard speaks with Jean Simard, President and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada. According to Simard, the US-Canada aluminum dispute is not a conventional disagreement over trade, but rather a 'Trump posture that makes no sense". As American industrial demand substantially exceeds domestic production capacity, tariffs will do nothing to reduce Canadian aluminum from the US market. Protectionism does not eliminate interdependence, explains Simard, it makes that interdependence considerably more expensive.
Simard interprets the conflict as an accelerator of structural change within Canada. External pressure from Washington is encouraging Canada to reduce internal trade barriers, diversify export relationships, protect strategically important industries and research capacity and deepen its relationship with Europe.
