Allison Martell News

Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs on C$16.6 billion ($12.8 billion) worth of U.S. exports and challenge U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization (WTO), Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday.The Canadian tariffs are set to go into effect on July 1, 2018, and stay in place until the U.S. lifts its own measures, Freeland said, hours after the United States said it would impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada…

The United States on Thursday said it will impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, reigniting investor fears of a global trade war as Washington's allies took steps to retaliate against U.S. goods.The move, announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a telephone briefing on Thursday, ended months of uncertainty about potential tariff exemptions and suggested a hardening of the Trump administration's approach to trade negotiations.It also sent a chill through financial markets…

The union that represents workers along the St. Lawrence Seaway has agreed to take a contract dispute to arbitration, avoiding a strike that would have shut the waterway linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The union, Unifor, announced the news in a statement on Sunday evening. It had previously set a strike deadline for Monday. "We have been meeting night and day the past week to reach a deal, and came to the conclusion that arbitration was the best way to resolve remaining issues," Unifor National Representative Joel Fournier said in the statement. Some 460 Unifor members work for the not-for-profit St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.   Reporting by Allison Martell

The union that represents workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the waterway that links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, has extended a strike deadline to Monday at 5 p.m. ET/2200 GMT. A strike would close the key shipping route. Five locals of Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union, gave notice on Tuesday that they could strike midday on Friday. Unifor said talks would continue through the weekend: "We remain hopeful that a deal can be reached," said Unifor National Representative Joel Fournier in a release.   Reporting by Allison Martell

The union that represents workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the waterway that links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, has extended a strike deadline to Monday at 5 p.m. ET/2200 GMT. A strike would close the key shipping route. Five locals of Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union, gave notice on Tuesday that they could strike midday on Friday. Unifor said talks would continue through the weekend: "We remain hopeful that a deal can be reached," said Unifor National Representative Joel Fournier in a release. (Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Union workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the waterway that links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, have given notice of a possible strike, which could start on Friday afternoon, Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union, said on Tuesday. The not-for-profit St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp could not immediately be reached for comment. During another dispute with the same union in 2008, the corporation said a strike could close the Seaway. Unifor has five locals and 460 members along the waterway, which stretches from Montreal to Lake Erie.

Port Metro Vancouver, Canada's largest port, said on Thursday it has approved a new facility to transfer coal from trains onto barges at Fraser Surrey Docks, a decision that followed lengthy public scrutiny over the project's environmental and health impact. After a permitting process lasting more than two years and including environmental impact, air quality and other human health assessments, the port said it found no "unacceptable risks" in allowing the $15 million project to move forward. The Fraser Surrey Docks terminal would handle up to 4 million metric tonnes of coal from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co (BNSF) each year, loading it on barges bound for Texada Island, north of Vancouver, where it would be transferred to large vessels for export.

A U.S. shipping firm is suing Alcoa for $300 million saying it suffered losses after the aluminium maker breached a contract with the Guinean government concerning bauxite shipments from the world's top exporter, court documents showed. Nanko Shipping and its president Mori Diane filed a civil complaint in the U.S. district court of the District of Columbia last week saying it had been harmed by Alcoa's refusal to honor the terms of the 1963 joint-venture mining deal with the Guinean government. That agreement established the Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG), the largest bauxite mine in the West African country, and gave the government the right to choose a company to ship half of its production, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc said on Wednesday it expects to "imminently" sign an agreement with Indonesia that would enable it to immediately resume copper concentrate exports which have been halted for more than six months. Freeport said on July 8 it had agreed on a draft memorandum of understanding but had not signed it. At the time, it gave no time frame on when it would resume exports. Indonesia introduced a mineral ore export ban and a steep export tax in January. The gold and copper miner also reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that were little changed from a year-ago. "It is a compromise to create a bridge for us so that we can return to normal operations," Chief Executive Richard Adkerson said of the MoU on a call with analysts and investors.