Link to article: https://torontosun.com/news/national/panel-agrees-with-canada-that-trump-era-u-s-solar-panel-tariffs-violate-usmca

Canada challenges the U.S. tariffs on Solar Panels under the trade pact, USMCA. Mary Ng, Canada’s minister of trade and export promotion said, “U.S. tariffs on Canadian solar products are unjustified and in violation”. Donald Trump first imposed the safeguard tariffs on solar panels, but did not exempt Canada and Mexico. Earlier this month Joe Biden extended the tariffs but eased the terms. Bided wants to start negotiations with Mexico and Canada to make sure that imports of solar products “do not undermine the effectiveness” of the tariffs, which were aimed at subsidized production from China. Mary Ng plans to have complete removal of these “unjustified tariffs”.

In a world where climate change is a global problem and a pressing issue, solar panels and other environmentally friendly technologies are becoming increasingly popular. We need to ensure that these products are accessible, so making sure these are tariff free is a good step in the right direction. The USMCA allows countries to not not have tariffs if their products are not a substantial share of total imports or hurt domestic producers, which Canada’s numbers are not. It is important for all countries in the pact to challenge each other when something doesn’t align with the agreement.

Trade agreements are a form of international organizations which aim to improve cooperation between countries from the liberal theory. The USMCA pact eliminates most of the tariffs among the North American partners, so it is understandable that Canada expects the solar panels to be tariff free as well. The USMCA substituted the  North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The USMCA aims to strengthen food and agriculture trade and other products to support the North American economy. I agree that this is a violation of the pact because the agreement allows the countries to escape tariffs if their imports are not a significant share of the total imports.