Canada and Mexico will be given temporary exemptions from the steel and aluminum tariffs announced last week, Donald Trump said March 8, as the three countries work to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Saying he wanted to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industries but wanted to show “great flexibility and cooperation toward those that are really friends.”
“If we’re making the deal on NAFTA, this will figure into the deal and we won’t have the tariffs on Canada or Mexico,” Trump said.
If the U.S. can’t get the deal Trump wants, he said it will be terminated, “and we’ll start all over again or we’ll just do it a different way.
“But I have a feeling we’re going to make a deal on NAFTA…. and if we do, there won’t be any tariffs on Canada and there won’t be any tariffs on Mexico.
Even if Canada does get an exemption, however, it is feared that China, frozen out of the American market, will simply ratchet up the dumping of Cheap steel and aluminum elsewhere, including in Canada.
If NAFTA talks fail, and the tariffs are applied, Canadian steel and aluminum producers will be punished even more. The cost to Canada from U.S. tariffs has been estimated at more than $3 billion.
