Canada’s Consultations on Countermeasures to US Tariffs

This special bulletin is being shared on behalf of the BC Trade and Economic Security Taskforce Secretariat.

We are writing to share information on Canada’s Tariff  Remissions Process and Consultation on Potential Countermeasures.

1. Federal Remissions Process:
The Government of Canada has established a framework for requesting remission of tariffs under specific circumstances. Remission allows for relief from the payment of tariffs, or the refund of tariffs already paid. The federal government will consider remission requests in instances where goods used as inputs cannot be sourced domestically or reasonably from non-U.S. sources, or in other exceptional circumstances that could have severe adverse impacts on the Canadian economy.  Requests for remission are assessed by the Department of Finance, in consultation with other relevant federal departments, and recommendations are made to the Minister of Finance.

For more information on this, please visit: Further details on the remission framework, including the application process and eligibility criteria for relief.

2. Federal Consultation on Countermeasures:
The Government of Canada announced that it is seeking Canadians’ views on further retaliatory actions and specific feedback on a list of goods to which future retaliatory tariffs may apply. That list can be found in Table 1 of the Notice of Intent to Impose Countermeasures in Response to United States Tariffs on Canadian Goods – Canada.ca.

The purpose of publishing this list is to be ready, if needed, to impose additional retaliatory tariffs, and to pro-actively identify any potential significant impacts to specific BC business interests related to possible future tariffs on specific U.S. goods, before they are imposed, as tariffs on those products would increase the cost of those goods imported from the U.S.
We encourage you to provide input directly to the federal government in order to amplify any B.C.-specific issues: Consultations on Canada’s Response to United States Tariffs on Canadian Goods: Comment Submission Form.

The BC Provincial Government has created a list of supports available to BC businesses impacted by tariffs, at: https://www.britishcolumbia.ca/for-bc-businesses/us-tariffs-bc/.

If you have specific information you wish to share with the Province’s Trade and Investment team, please reach out here.

B.C. Trade and Economic Security Taskforce Secretariat
Trade Policy, Analytics and Marketing Branch | Trade, Investment & Corporate Initiatives
Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation
Email: bctestsecretariat@gov.bc.ca