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The project requires certain steel products, including energy tubular steel, that fall under the safeguard restrictions — many of which cannot be produced in Canada, the filing states. For instance, 40 metre “inner rib piles” — used to build the port infrastructure in Kitimat — are not fabricated in Canada. Even if they were, the filing states, they could not be safely transported to the remote project site.

Though it is committed to providing opportunities to Canadian firms, LNG Canada says it has been unable to find an alternate solution to this problem using domestic suppliers.

“To the extent LNG Canada will need to use imported steel products, it will be because they are required due to a lack of capacity or expertise among domestic producers, and where it is not commercially feasible or physically possible to transport steel products across Canada to the Project site in Kitimat,” the filing states.

Canada’s safeguards are intended to ward off a surge in imports by creating a ceiling or quota on the amount of each product allowed into the country under standard duties — set at the average of the past three years of import volumes. All imports exceeding that amount face a tariff of 25 per cent. The U.S. — already subject to retaliatory tariffs — is exempted from the safeguard measures.

All imports from Mexico, are also excluded with the exception of energy tubular and wire rod products. Imports from both countries were found to have not contributed importantly to the injury or threat of injury to the market, the Ministry of Finance said in a previous release.