Evidence of meeting #124 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was product.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
The countervailing tariffs don't help you at all? What's in place right now?
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Tube Inc.
There are no tariffs on that product. There are none.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Tube Inc.
The other thing I'd like to add is, yes, steel prices have increased, and there was an immediate shock to that. Remember, I'm a steel consumer, not a producer. We buy $450 million worth of steel a year in Canada. We're the largest steel buyer in Canada, larger than any automotive company, so I'm affected by it as well, but I would argue that steel prices have been ridiculously depressed for many years.
Yes, while prices swing up and down—and I sympathize with the gentleman in P.E.I.—there have been years when steel prices have gone down, and I'm pretty sure he didn't go back to his consumers and lower the price, so it's give and take.
Also, on his point on the LNG plan, it's unconscionable that we would allow imported fabricated products for those plants. Again, the tax dollars that the gentlemen pays and I pay are going to go to foreign producers while we have steel companies and fabricators here struggling to get by. It's unconscionable that we would allow that to happen.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Mr. Clark, you talked about the inability in your pricing to get the duty deferral. It's required that you sign a waiver. If you're buying steel from the U.S., then you can't claim it; the importer claims it. Are you saying that you're not seeing that claimant amount reduced in the price? You're not seeing what that amount is?
President, MacDougall Steel Erectors Inc.
Well, when we purchase our products, we typically purchase from service centres. The service centre will buy that material from the United States—
President, MacDougall Steel Erectors Inc.
—then he would give me a price on the material that includes the tariff, and then I just pay the bottom price I get.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Is he pocketing the tariff duty relief and the duty deferral?
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
You have to sign what is called a K32 or a K32A form, basically saying that you don't have any right to claim, but by doing that, you're left in the lurch. You have no ability to know exactly whether you're getting rebated on that tariff amount or not. How much is that being pocketed by the industry and just being added into their bottom lines, and you're paying for it?
Conservative
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Mr. Zekelman, how do you deal in that situation when you have people importing steel into Canada?
Mind you, there aren't many of them getting duty deferral and relief. Out of 85,000 views on their Internet site, I think they've approved 50, so that kind of gives you an idea of where they are.
How do we create a system so there's transparency through it so you can see the duty deferral being passed on to the manufacturer here in Canada?
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Tube Inc.
Yes, I sympathize with the gentleman. We buy directly from the mills, but our product is all dutiable from the U.S. Most of the steel we use is Canadian-sourced steel, so we're buying from Stelco, Algoma, and the like, and processing that and shipping it.
I will tell you that there are other problems that are being borne by the consumer. For instance, there are no electrical conduit manufacturers in Canada. It's not made here—
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Tube Inc.
The primary manufacturers are in the United States. We're one of them, so our product is being shipped over to the Canadian consumer and being charged 25% duty, and the Canadian consumer is bearing that for really no reason. They couldn't access that product in Canada since it's not made here.
Again, the gentlemen in P.E.I. is probably talking about beams. There is no beam producer in Canada, so all that product is either brought in from offshore or from the United States. If it's brought in from the United States, you're penalizing the consumer here, like the gentleman from P.E.I., who ends up eventually paying a duty on a product that's not even made here, and there are no exclusions for it.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Is there any way you can actually identify that so that they remove it?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Thank you, gentlemen. We will have to move over to the Liberals.
Mr. Peterson, you have the floor.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being with us.
If you want to expand on Mr. Hoback's question—he got cut off just at the last second—please take a few seconds.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Tube Inc.
We've put in exclusion requests for a product that isn't produced here, and there is some movement on it. We've obtained exclusions on certain products.
At the end of the day, you don't want to cost the consumer money and make them uncompetitive, so we have achieved that. The process is a bit slow, but it is being dealt with.
To the gentleman in P.E.I., I would have to think that he'd go to his service centre and say, “Look, did you apply for exclusion on this? I expect to get compensated for that duty that you told me I have to pay.” There has to be a mechanism that he has with his supplier.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you for that.
Maybe we can somehow help you navigate this process, Mr. Clark. We have your contact information and perhaps we can get someone to reach out and help you in the process, if you're amenable to that. We'll see what we can do, because it does sound unfair that you're not able to tap into this.