A representative for the Canadian steel industry says he worries that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are here to stay for the “long term” as he urged the federal government to strengthen Buy Canadian rules to support the industry.
Speaking at the Senate’s foreign affairs committee Thursday, John Cuddihy, a vice president with the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said the American steel industry has profited greatly from Trump’s trade war with Canada.
And Cuddihy said he doesn’t anticipate the situation changing any time soon.
“The underpinnings of the current situation suggest that tariffs could be with us for awhile,” said Cuddihy.
“From a financial perspective, where the United States is at suggests it may be difficult for them to remove tariffs across the board. So in terms of treating the world as it is as opposed to how we’d like it to be, as we look at the world we’re anticipating that tariffs will be … in play for the long term. ”
Cuddihy declined to answer questions about the impact of U.S. steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs decision to lay off roughly 350 employees at Hamilton’s Stelco plant.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the U.S. company of “betraying” Canadian workers and suggested federal funds were available to keep employees working at the Hamilton plant.
But Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves told Global News in an interview that “no amount of money” would’ve changed the factors that led to the company’s decision.
“There’s no market in Canada for the amount of galvanized steel we produce in Canada. We need to export … to the United States,” said Goncalves, who has supported U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Goncalves denied his support and donations to Trump played a factor in his decision.
“I have been in this business for 45 years, so I have worked with so many different persons, Republicans and Democrats. Trump, then Biden, then Trump,” Goncalves said.
He also denied that he was holding out for a better financial support package from the Canadian government.
“I did not ask for a blank cheque to the tune of billions with no conditions, that’s absolutely wrong,” Goncalves said.
On Monday, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly sent Stelco president Paul Simon a letter detailing “extreme disappointment” in the company’s layoff plans, noting that Cleveland-Cliffs takeover of Stelco in 2024 was conditional on maintaining the number of unionized and non-unionized employees.
Those conditions remain regardless of “business strategy or market conditions,” Joly wrote.
With files from Global’s Colin D’Mello and the Canadian Press.
If anyone can use a bullet is the skull it’s village idiot’s like “Anonymous” the dumbell Anonymous (See below) …apologies to the educated who occasionally also use the handle anonymous.
The “Master Nogeotiator” my azz. Carney deserves a bullet in his skull.
Sadly, we still live in a world that gives stupidity a platform.
We have been here before and negotiated better terms than the current crop of Liberals and Carney could ever dream of.
They were so preoccupied with winning an election they didn’t deserve with their violent elbows up rhetoric they forgot diplomacy is not supposed to be violent.
Trump saw you coming from miles away and has dispensed with you in the same way all of history dispenses with agitators. They quietly let them hang themselves.
A hostile takeover is a company being taken over by shareholders that think the company is moving in the wrong direction.
It is not actually violent, oppressive, or hostile. It’s just against the wishes of current leadership/ownership.
The US has an upper hand in negotiation, regardless of who is in power, because the Liberals have played their hand so poorly they have exposed their weakness for all to see.
Think of it similar to the common refrain of jocular humiliation: you left yourself open.
No offense, it’s just business. That is the thrust of the experts, not wishful thinking based on ignorance as seen below.
He is in his last Presidency and this bonehead is thinking he will learn a lesson at 80. It is so sad and I have no doubt he is my expected Professor caught in a moment because all he knows is academic rather than experiential. He is using the analogy in of a grading curve developed by lazy professors that just can’t be bothered to read the mindless thought of the students they so epically failed to educate.
“Try This
October 8, 2026 at 1:05 pm
We have been through this before. Thinking it will be long term, when the world is moving away from tariffs. They will go when the court rules again. A Trump supporter trying to shaft Canada. Nothing new. The learning curve will hurt him.”
As long as Liberals are in power, Canada and Canadians will lose.
Liberals, due to their cultishness, actually think Democrat billionaires are somehow less greedy than Republican billionaires because: insert emotional drivel here.
What is certain, is the inflation caused by tariffs is here to stay.
Maybe Homelander Carney will just go laser them for laying off the workers. He acts like Homelander and the people that follow him will think he is god!
So the reality is starting to settle in that the tariffs, which Carney could have reduced had he not walked away from the deal, are here to stay. Even after Trump is long gone Canada will be paying the price for Carney wanting to sneak Chinese EV’s into the US.
There is stuff going on all over Europe and none of it is reported by Canadian media. Canadians are kept in the dark.
We have been through this before. Thinking it will be long term, when the world is moving away from tariffs. They will go when the court rules again. A Trump supporter trying to shaft Canada. Nothing new. The learning curve will hurt him.
@Ben Canada can’t wait another 2 years for Trump to be gone and there is no guarantee things will change when he is even if the democrats get in. Our companies are dying now Canadians are losing their jobs now.
Short term for the Turd
Wow. France is in shambles. Odd how Global hardly reports on it.
Carney’s plan is coming together nicely.
Alberta out!!!
Of course they are. When Trump leaves, there will be vested interests, just like there were after the Smoot-Haawley tariffs. A few people (US steel workers) who are vocal will scream if tariffs change while the general population, which benefits from free trade, will not be vocal. Trade benefits the whole economy. US politicians will look at political benefits, not economic benefits, when tariffs are looked at.