According to a TV interview this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he’s working on pressuring Donald Trump to exclude Canada from the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. The measures were imposed in early 2018 using national security as a justification, and they remained in place despite the signing of the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement in November.
Trudeau said, “We have already been working with members of Congress, with governors, with business interests who are being affected negatively by these tariffs … to put pressure on the President that in the process of ratification, they should remove those steel and aluminum tariffs.”
When asked why Canada signed the USMCA without the removal of Section 232 tariffs, Trudeau said securing the deal “at a time of unpredictability and protectionism in the United States was a massive priority for all Canadians.”