NMMA welcomes Senator Grassley’s call to end aluminum and steel tariffs

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) – chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade-related matters – penned an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, stating that Section 232 aluminum and steel tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico – and both countries’ subsequent retaliatory measures – must be removed before Congress will ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

NMMA applauded Senator Grassley’s call to end aluminum, steel, and retaliatory tariffs – actions that have increased raw material costs for marine manufacturers and stifled the industry’s exports.

According to Senator Grassley’s op-ed, “A significant roadblock [to approving USMCA] is the administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminum and retaliatory Canadian and Mexican tariffs on U.S. products…If these tariffs aren’t lifted, USMCA is dead. There is no appetite in Congress to debate USMCA with these tariffs in place.”

Senator Grassley began the piece by writing, “Donald Trump bucked decades of Republican orthodoxy by railing against free-trade agreements. To say I was skeptical of his plans to rip up or renegotiate nearly every major trade deal would be a polite understatement.”