Donald Trump hinted on Monday that Canada and Mexico could be exempt from planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports – but only if the North American Free Trade Agreement is renegotiated to his satisfaction.
‘We have large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs,’ Trump tweeted.
‘Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed. Also, Canada must treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive.’
President Trump signaled a potential exemption for Canada and Mexico from new tariffs on steel and aluminum, but only if they bend on a new NAFTA negotiation
Trump also laid down a marker with Mexico, saying the nation to America’s south ‘must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S. They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people [are] addicted and dying.’
The president’s claim of a massive trade deficit with Canada is dubious. When services – not jut goods – are figured in, the U.S. has a trade surplus with the Great White North.
Trump is expected to formalize his new tariffs this week.
Rumors have swirled around Washington in the past week about carve-outs for U.S.-friendly nations, but Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week’ that Trump is ‘talking about a fairly broad brush.’
‘I have not heard him describe particular exemptions just yet,’ Ross said.
Trump spoke Saturday night at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, D.C.
But Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ that some individual companies could be exempt from the new import tariffs.
‘There will be an exemption procedure for particular cases where we need to have exemptions, so that business can move forward,’ Navarro said Sunday.
Trump said last week that his 10 per cent tariff on aluminum and 25 per cent tariff on steel would be implemented across the board as a means of protecting national security.
‘To protect our Country we must protect American Steel! #AMERICA FIRST,’ he tweeted on Monday.
Ross, however, suggested on Sunday that the tariff plan is in flux.
‘Whatever his final decision is, is what will happen. What he has said he has said,’ he told ABC.
‘If he says something different, it’ll be something different.’
Navarro said Monday on ‘Fox &Friends’ ‘if we get a great NAFTA agreement … that would be a great thing for the American people.’
But ‘at this point in time, 25 per cent on steel, 10 per cent on aluminum. No cuts or exclusions, firm line in the sand.