Canada will ban imports of aluminum and steel products from Russia to hold the Russian government accountable for the ongoing war with Ukraine, Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on March 10, the same day that the previously announced US 200 percent duties on Russian aluminum.
“We continue to do everything we can to cut off or limit the revenues used to fund Putin’s illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine,” Freeland said in a statement.
The aluminum import ban will cover raw, sheet and finished products such as containers and household items. As for steel, the ban will affect iron and non-alloy steel, semi-finished products and finished metal products.
The Canadian Ministry of Finance recalled that in 2021 this country imported aluminum from Russia in the amount of $45 million, and Russian steel products - $45 million. $213 million.
Canada's decision to ban Russian steel and aluminum shipments follows a series of U.S. trade moves against Russia announced in February, chief among them a 200 percent tariff on Russian aluminum imposed under a government statute 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
The US 200 percent tariff will apply to any imported aluminum products made from Russian-origin aluminum.
Unwrought aluminum typically makes up the bulk part of Canada's aluminum imports from Russia, according to S&P Global and Canadian trade statistics. Raw products imported to Canada from Russia amounted to about 2,500 tons in 2022, compared to over 9,000 tons in 2020 and 2021. Canada is one of the world's largest producers of primary aluminum.
Canada's imports of steel under HS code 72 from Russia fell to around 36,000 tons in 2022 from over 113,000 tons in 2021 and over 70,000 tons in 2020.
