US tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum could rise to 50% instead of 25%. This was reported by the Canadian press on Tuesday, citing a White House official.
He said that the tariffs on metals from Canada, if they come into force, would be added to the other 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods, which US President Donald Trump declared he would introduce earlier.
On February 1, Trump signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on imports of goods from Canada and Mexico. However, on February 4, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after a conversation with Trump, announced that Ottawa had received a 30-day reprieve to address the situation with illegal immigration and drug trafficking on the Canada-US border.
On February 10, Trump ordered a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports to be imposed on March 12. The decision also applies to supplies from Canada. Trudeau threatened, if necessary, to give a firm and unequivocal response to similar American measures.
Meanwhile, Australia imposed sanctions on five Russian individuals and one legal entity, the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs announced.
The department noted that, by decision of Foreign Minister Penny Wong, targeted economic and financial restrictions are directed against Russians who, according to the Australian side, participated in the hacker attack on the databases of the medical insurance company Medibank in October 2022. “The government is imposing sanctions on the Russian company ZServers and five Russian hackers who provided storage and distribution of data stolen from Medibank“, the minister said.
According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the owner of ZServers Alexander Bolshakov and the company's employees Dmitry Bolshakov, Alexander Mishin, Igor Odintsov and Ilya Sidorov are on the blacklist. These Russian citizens are prohibited from entering the country, and all transactions with property belonging to them are subject to criminal liability.
On October 14, 2022, it became known about a cyberattack on the servers of one of the largest insurance companies in Australia. In the first days after the hack, it hid information that hackers managed to steal personal data of insured persons, as well as a significant part of confidential medical information, but later the hackers demanded a ransom. Medibank was forced to confirm the theft and admit that 9.7 million customers were affected by the hack, which caused $20 million in damage. The Australian Federal Police blamed Russian hackers for the cyberattack, and authorities imposed personal sanctions on the Russian national Alexander Ermakov, who is said to be responsible for hacking the databases.