Despite warnings from several nations and sharp dissent from within his own Republican Party, with more than 100 lawmakers writing to him, President Donald Trump was gearing up to sign on Thursday an order to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium imports as part of his push to protect American industry and workers.
The White House, however, held out the possibility of exemption or delayed execution of the order for some countries, notably neighbours Canada and Mexico with which the US has been engaged in talks aimed at a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that Trump has been insisting upon.
“There are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada, based on national security, and possibly for other countries as well,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday.
Without disclosing the names of any other country that could hope for exemption, Sanders said: “That would be a case-by-case and country-by-country basis, but it would be determined whether or not there is a national security exemption.”
India is among the steel exporting nations that accounts for 2.4 per cent of the steel that the United States imports. Canada tops the list, accounting for 16.7 per cent of US steel imports, followed by Brazil (13.2 per cent), South Korea (9.7 per cent) and Mexico (9.4 per cent).
“We’re going to open this up for our allies to just see if we can work through this problem,” White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business Network on Wednesday night.
Once signed by President Trump, the tariffs would go into effect in 15 to 30 days, Navarro said, noting that the proclamation will have a clause that does not impose these tariffs immediately on Canada and Mexico. A permanent exclusion of the two neighbours will, however, depend on the outcome of the NAFTA renegotiation talks, he said. Trump last week indicated that he would impose 25 per cent tariff on imported steel and 10 per cent on imported aluminum. Canada is also the US’s top supplier of aluminium, accounting for as much as 41 per cent of the total.