Quebec Premier François Legault said he’s “really unhappy” with the Trump administration’s decision this week to toughen tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
While the United States uses 5 million tons of aluminum per year, it produces only 14 percent of its needs, Legault said Wednesday in an interview at POLITICO’s office in Virginia. Roughly 60 percent of aluminum imported into the United States comes from Quebec, he said.
“And there’s no other capacity in the world for aluminum,” Legault said. “I mean, maybe in China, but I hope they don’t intend to go there.”
Legault, who spoke to reporters before heading to the White House with other leaders of Canada’s provinces, said Canada doesn’t want to see a trade war with the United States. In advance of the Super Bowl, President Donald Trump told reporters that “any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff — aluminum, too.”
