Canadian steel and aluminum could face stiff new EU tariffs

Canada wants to send more steel and aluminum to Europe, but it could be facing a new kind of terror. It's a big deal conceptually. The European Union is rolling out a carbon levy to incentivize cleaner production, taxing not just metals but cement and other energy-intensive imports. This is a big change in the way that trade gets treated, and we're seeing other places around the world interested in this approach. CBC News obtained this internal government document that sheds light on the EU's plans. It calls the mechanism effectively a carbon tariff and notes that even with Canada's industrial carbon pricing system, Canadian exporters are not exempt. And Ottawa is focused on minimizing the impacts. What are you going to do to make sure that Canadian producers aren't paying carbon price here and then a carbon tariff? The environment minister suggested the EU could recognize what Canada is doing to fight climate change. Industrial carbon pricing is a very important part of how do we make sure our businesses are competitive internationally as well, and at the same time we're actually working on reducing emissions. Canada's major metals producers, Rio Tinto and ArcelorMittal, declined to comment, but one exporter sees an upside. So this is a piece from one of our higher-grade deposits. Canada Nickel is advancing the Crawford project, a mine in Timmins, Ontario, with the hopes of shipping millions of tons of steel annually to Europe. For us, it's a tremendous opportunity. We think what we have in the Timmins area and Crawford, we hope will be the first of multiple projects, you know, to become the leading source of low carbon, potentially zero carbon steel for Europe. The EU is not an outlier on this. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, are developing or assessing their own carbon border taxes. David Thornton, CBC News, Ottawa.