The discount of Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude to the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures (WTI) narrowed on Monday, against a backdrop of falling global oil prices and ongoing U.S. trade policy uncertainty.
* WCS for April delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $11.55 a barrel under WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, after having settled at $12.15 under the U.S. benchmark on Friday.
* Last Tuesday saw U.S. President Donald Trump apply 25% tariffs to most Canadian goods and 10% to Canadian energy products.
* Then on Thursday, Trump suspended the tariffs for an additional month, though a White House official said not all energy products would be covered by the exemption.
* Many Canadian crude shippers have not gone through the paperwork-heavy and time-intensive process to become compliant under United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement rules, said Rory Johnston, an energy analyst and founder of the Commodity Context newsletter.
* He said with a 10% tariff on the line, the portion of Canadian crude going through the USMCA certification process should increase.
* Canada exports approximately 4 million barrels of oil per day, about 90% of its total crude exports, to the United States.
* Globally, oil prices were down 1% on Monday on fears that U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would slow economies around the world and slash energy demand while OPEC+ ramps up its supply.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Alan Barona)