The U.S. Department of Commerce has launched another national security investigation that could target Canada, this time by looking into uranium imports.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the Section 232 investigation ahead of the potential imposition of tariffs on imports of the ore.
Canada is the world’s second-largest producer of uranium after Kazakhstan, with 23 per cent of global production in 2016.
Ross says the investigation, which follows a petition from two U.S. uranium mining companies, will canvass the uranium sector from mining through enrichment, defence, and industrial consumption.
The department says U.S. production of uranium for military and electric power has decreased to five per cent of its consumption from 49 per cent in 1987.
Uranium powers 99 U.S. commercial nuclear reactors that produce 20 per cent of the country’s electricity grid. It is also a required component of its nuclear arsenal and powers submarines and aircraft carriers.
The Commerce Department says the two petitioners, which account for more than half of all uranium mined in the U.S., have laid off more than half their workforce over the last two years and operate at nine and 13 per cent of their respective capacity.
The investigation comes a day before the department holds a hearing on whether the imports of automobiles, including trucks, and automotive parts threaten U.S. national security.